“In the end, there is really nothing more
important than taking care of the earth and letting it take care of you.”
Charles Scott
Getting the highest yield from the garden was one of our
many goals when we started the garden project at the Community Day Center of
Waltham. At the Center, approximately 40
guests come daily for lunch throughout the afternoon. Our aim was to provide at
least two healthy meals per week from the garden during the summer, when the
students and parishioners who help bring meals were away. This way, our guests can eat more and
healthier, even as I stretch our limited budget. To accomplish this, we started our garden
early and used strategies like interplanting, succession planting, companion
planting and lateral planting to get the most out of the garden. To stretch production into late fall, we
plan to protect the vegetables from frost with a layer of straw and later with
a cold frame.
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| 5 raised beds |
With the help of volunteers from WalthamWorks and cheered on
by our Mayor, we inaugurated our garden early on April 1st when the
ground was still bare and thawing – but nothing could dampened the spirits of
over a dozen able bodies . Making sure
that our seeds would be planted in fertile land, we purchased and shared with
Healthy Waltham 5 cu. yards of “super soil”.
We built five raised beds that had south facing sunlight. Raised beds
were easier to maintain and had better air circulation because the soil was not
compacted. We spread straw over the beds
to warm up the soil, conserve water and inhibit weeds. Heating the soil in early spring and late
fall will extend our growing season. The Boston area
is in USDA Hardiness Zone 6, so we could have two growing seasons for leafy
greens and salad greens. Because of the
warmer soil temperature, seeds can germinate earlier in the spring and extends
planting of cool season crops to late fall.
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| the five beds today |
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| beets growing on slope |
Our plans for the garden grew “organically” from there. At the farthest of the five beds, the land was sloped. We used large stones to buttress the soil, and there we planted beets. Judy Fallows had raspberry plants which we planted on the north side as a natural barrier from our neighbor’s land. In front of the raspberry patch we had another bed of tomatoes, and beyond that we had our herb spiral. Parsley, chives, lemon balm, oregano, thyme, and basil grew like children on a school outing, walking single file up to the top of a hill. On the west side, we had edible flowers of nasturtiums, pansies, borage and marigolds.
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| carrots interplanted with radishes |
To get the most out of our garden, we tried different techniques like interplanting faster growing seeds, like radishes, with slower growing seeds, like carrots, to make the space more productive. The thinking was when the radishes are harvested that the slower growing carrots will then have room to grow. We tried two methods in planting seeds. One way was to mix the radish and carrot seeds with potting soil in a Tupperware and then spreading the mixture in rows in the bed. The second way was to plant the seeds according to the instructions on the seed package. In Row 1, we planted the radishes in the first method resulting in overcrowding plants. (This method was very successful with salad greens.) Periodically, we thinned down the radish plants, but I think we should have been more aggressive in thinning because only one in ten plants had radishes, and the radishes we did have were stringy. Because the plants were not productive, we pulled them all out, leaving plenty of room for the carrots. By way of consolation, we told ourselves that we are now practiced at “cost-benefit analysis.”
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| red leaf lettuce |
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| replaced by peppers and kohlrabi |
Another strategy we used to maximizing production was
succession planting. In Row 3, we grew
tomato seedlings and in back of them were 7 red leaf lettuce plants. These “seven sisters” were enough to provide
many crunchy salads late spring and summer.
Towards the middle of summer, the leaves of the red lettuce started to
turn bitter so we pulled them out and planted peppers and kohlrabi in their
place. We also recently pulled out the squash and zucchini plants. Their productivity was cut short, even with
intervention (see July post: Remedy for Squash Vine Borers), because of
infestation of squash vine borers. We
planted cool season plants like kale and Chinese vegetables.
A third strategy was to place two complementary plants
together to enhance growth, pest control or flavor. We placed marigolds in each corner of the
beds. They are known to ward off bugs
that may attack tomato and pepper plants.
Also, in our Organic Pest Control post we advised the spacing out of different plants in the same family and
separate them with other types of plants. That way, if you get pests on
your squash plants on one side of the garden, they may not get to the plants on
the other side of the garden because there are other, unappealing plants in the
way.
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| growing peas and beans laterally |
To take advantage of pre-existing
fences on the eastern border of the garden, we trained plants to grow
laterally. All along the fences we had
beans, sweet peas, cucumbers and tomato plants. Once you trained the earlier
tendrils to climb, they did the rest. There was no need to stake the
plants. But, the best gift of all was
that this method saved us from having to bend over to pick the produce. We are able to show our friends and guests
our nimble fingers hard at work, and not the suffering of our stiff backs and
slow knees.
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| early tomato plants are past peak |
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squash borers wiped out many plants
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| kale, cool plant for fall |
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| collads |
As an update on the garden, we are
witnessing the changing of the guards:
the early tomato plants, basil are looking tired and so are the climbing
plants, but the kale, Swiss chard and collards, the late tomatoes, peppers,
beets and carrots will hopefully provide more meals through October. To protect the new cool vegetables I planted
a few weeks ago, I plan to replace the straw in the beds and plan to build cold
frames to protect the plants from frost. We will write more about cold frames
in our next post.
I’ll leave you with the words of H. Fred Dale,
gardening editor, “My
green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see
things from the plant's point of view. “
Happy gardening.
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