Let's Get This Thing Started: Vegetable Garden

We moved onto this 40-acre property in the foothills of Tennessee in October 2012 and then spent the first few months just getting to know the place. Even in the fall, the vegetation was so thick that we couldn't see very far in any direction. It wasn't until the dead of winter that we got a good feel for the contours of the land, potential lines of sight, and the distances between points around the property.

As we got the lay of the land, we were beginning to plan our vegetable garden for the spring. Here's how we broke it down:

1) Pick a good spot. We decided on a patch of ground that seemed to be the best combination of three factors: sunny, close to the house, and relatively flat. The spot we picked isn't perfect in any of those categories. It was a briar patch surrounded by trees that steal at least a few of hours of sunlight. (One of our goals was to not have to cut any big trees for the garden.) It's also about a hundred paces up a slight hill from the house. As for flatness, it's about as good as you'll find around here unless you're on top of a ridge, which would be even further from the house.

2) Clear the land.

Dave and Gabe burning briars to clear land for the garden.

Like much of our property, this patch of ground had once been cow pasture. But the previous owners didn't have livestock, so they let the blackberries take over. Since we were doing this sans tractor, we spent several days clearing the briars with a sling blade. A kind neighbor, when he heard what we were doing, brought over his tractor and bush hog to help speed up the process.

3) Break the ground.

Rotary tiller in action.

We rented a rotary tiller and spent two days turning the ground over, plowing under the grass, and pulling out rocks. And good Lord at the rocks! We are native Floridians and not accustomed to such geological features. We plan to practice the "no till" gardening method (more on that later) once our raised beds are fully up and running, but it's definitely a good thing we had engine-power starting out.

4) Lay out the beds. We decided to garden in raised beds. Our beds are 12 feet long by 4 feet wide, separated by paths that are 3 feet wide. We tested out these dimensions to make sure Katie could comfortably reach the middle of the bed from the path. The goal is to never need to step into the bed and compact the soil. We used rotting logs and fallen limbs to line the beds and keep the soil from spilling into the paths.

5) Improve the soil.

Mmm. A load of horse manure from a local boarding stable.

Dig a trench across the bed, remove all the rocks,
toss in manure, fill the trench with soil from the next trench.  Repeat.

Once we had our beds staked out, we began a double dig of each bed. Through the double dig we discovered and removed hundreds and hundreds of more rocks. And we dug in a layer of composted horse and cow manure about a foot below the surface. We started a compost pile back when we moved in, but we were saving the compost for later for top dressing around the plants.

So that's basically how we turned a blackberry patch into a series of raised beds ready for vegetable planting. Later on, we'll fill you in on the planting and on other little projects going on around here. Thanks for stopping by!