Last year, Erik suggested putting in a couple of raised beds. I’d had a garden before, but it wasn’t the best experience. However, I fell in love with those two 4×8 plots. I went out every day, fussing over each new branch and leaf, carefully monitoring the growth of cucumbers and squash.
I started tracking what we spent on the garden, and what we got out of it, to see if we “broke even”. But midway through the summer, I stopped. It didn’t matter if it was a savings over the grocery store: the garden had changed my lifestyle in a wonderful way. Not only was I out there working in it every day, dinner plans began to build around what was ripe and needed eating.
Through it all, Erik just beamed at me. He had no qualms about me kind of “taking over” what had been his idea originally. He took so many photos of me tending my garden. He just was delighted to see me happy.
Once the season ended, all the energy I’d put into tending the garden was redirected into research and learning. I checked garden books out from the library, started watching gardening youtube channels, and bought the most well-loved garden books at estate sales. I wanted to do more, and do better!!
I was introduced to the concept of a “potager” garden, and was very strongly drawn to it. I loved this idea of flowers, herbs, and vegetables all growing together in verdant chaos.
Our property has a strip of land on the north side of our driveway. It’s about 30 ft x 100 ft, and because it isn’t blocked by the house, it gets GLORIOUS sun for almost the entire day. This would be my garden.
I drew out several different potential plans.
I ultimately decided to keep the central circle that was already there, and try to aim for something simple for the first year… but our family words are “Always Be Extra”, so you know we’re going to Go For it.
Finally, this is the design I settled on (the plantings aren’t 100%, but this basic shape):
- Keep last year’s raised beds, plus a huglekulture bed in the same area
- Keep the circle that once upon a time (before I lived here) held a flowering tree.
- A long bed along the driveway for various flowers, etc.
- On the north side of the property, a trellis for various winter squash.
- In the center, two large beds for various vegetables — bush beans, herbs, etc. And a central “arch” for cucumbers and beans.
This design went through so many iterations, to make sure it would really work. I mapped it out on graph paper (with Erik’s help). Last fall, I used stakes and twine to put the shapes of the bed into “real life”. Before we tilled, as one final check, I spray painted it all. This was helpful, and resulted in some small changes for usability. It also helped build confidence — each time I looked at the translation of the plan to real life, and it was working, I felt like “yeah, all this research I’ve been doing paid off!
So, once the design was done and finalized, it was time to start Phase 2: Construction…
Notebook 