Long story short, I finally have a little free time this spring to start a garden that my wife and I have wanted to do since moving here 4 years ago. I staked out a 12'x24' area seeing as the should be sufficient, and turned the soil over yesterday and will wait for the sod to dry/die, and then I will rake it off and top if off with mushroom soil. I'm putting in a 4' fence (welded wire) to take care of most pests, and then laying down hardware cloth on top of the top soil and below the mushroom soil to take care of some of the burrowing pests. The problem? I want to build a permanent, good looking fence out of PT 4x4s and 2x4s complete with a raised entry door and matching gate since this is RIGHT in sight of our patio, fire pit, etc. We don't know, however, whether or not we will want to change the size after this year. Putting in a permanent fence wouldn't make much sense if we decide to change the size after the first year. So for those of you with gardening experience, did you change your size of your garden annually, or did you lay it out and stick with it?
Ive increased the size of my garden every year. If you get into canning things increasing the size will be a sure bet. I think I started with approximately a 12 x 20 area, then realized that growing any melons really needs more room so I went to 20 x 20. Then I started canning and went to 24 x 24 and now am at 24 x 30. We rent right now but am in the process of looking for our fist house and when we do I will more than likely start a pretty large garden, maybe 32 x 32 (i'd do 50 x 50 if the wife would let me, but I havent tested the waters on that yet). I have only put up a fence the first year and it was just a little 2 ft. chicken wire fence for rabbits that they still found a way into. Since then I havent put up anything and havent had too much damage from critters and we have all kinds out there (deer, rabbit, coons). I've only had the deer get to it once and they do the most damage by far and took out half of my melons one year. Unfortunately, it takes a pretty tall fence to keep those suckers out. As far as looking at a garden from the patio, I love seeing the garden. Keep everything in nice rows and keep control of the weeds and they can look great.
We've had the same 40' x 60' garden for the past six years. It is important to move the crops around within the plot from year to year and always put some good fertilizer down in the fall after the crops are picked and the ground is tilled. We use cow manure. Enjoy!
Thanks everyone. I think I'll go temporary fence this year and see how it goes. Also planning on doing a drip irrigation system as well.
Dude.........just haul a hose over there with a sprinkler......hahaha. Anyhow, I have a 12x24 garden and it's the right size for us. I grow almost half of it in pumpkins though which take up a lot of room. If your not growing pumpkins, cucumbers, etc........you might have a tough time filling up that space.
I'm not sure why I over complicate things, but a lot of "veteran" gardeners recommended drip irrigation vs overhead watering. The kits aren't bad for the area I'm covering (about $30-$50), but I also don't see why I can't just water with my hose manually:D
The thing about drip irrigation is it doesnt get the leaves wet, which cuts down the disease you will have to fight in the later half of the summer. I just use a sprinkler and when the plants start to go they start to go, by that time i usually have a pretty good harvest anyways. Sometimes if its humid earlier than usual I just take the hose out there with no sprinkler and let it flood. The number one mistake of new gardeners....over watering! You want about an inch a week coming on two or three days. If it rains moderately once that week Ill only water once. If it rains twice I dont water at all. If we get one real good downpour I dont water at all.
One of the highlights of my day in the summer is coming home from work and watering the garden for 1-2 beers worth of time. I don't fence my garden, but I don't have deer around either. There are plenty of squirrels and rabbits though. I bought a Gamo Whisper last year which cost about the same as a fence and it's a lot more fun too. Last year was the first year I actually got to eat corn out of my garden too.
I priced it out, and it's going to cost ~$350 in materials to built a PT fence with welded wire. That's a lot to drop into a fence that may have to be disassembled and made larger. Then again, temp fencing material isn't much cheaper. We have plenty of deer, and my fruit trees draw them in to the area to begin with not to mention all of the berry bushes I'm planting here shortly.
Our 'garden' was going to be about 3 acres this year. Of course now that we're moving it doesn't look like we'll have any garden at all. No deer problems here but when I lived in deery land I put up that really cheap lightweight 7' tall deer mesh. Every once in a while a deer would crash into it but then they would freak out and leave. It's invisible from about 50ft away. We have gazillions of rabbits here. We shoot them on sight and kill 30-40 each year. I also put chicken wire cages around certain plants that the rabbits really like. Its a pain in the butt. Last year I watered just a little. Most years I don't need to water at all. Boy that sure will change in Utah. It's the second driest state. Yikes. Drip irrigation is much better than spraying with a hose but don't buy that black rubbery lumpy surfaced soaker hose. It springs leakes in no time and will tick you off. Trust me on this. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
Thanks, Christine. I thought of you when I made the post as I remember seeing your garden. I think for now, I'm going to put a small chicken wire or welded wire fence staked out about 2ft off the ground to keep the little guys out, and cage where necessary. As for the drip irrigation, I'll probably get a hard line (1/2") with perforations for the emitters.
My garden seems to grow bigger every year. lol! As of right It's right around and acre. It started out 1/3 of that size. We just got 10 Inches of snow on It. Would be nice If this fricking winter would let up!!
