The Modern Victory Garden

I am off from work this week and alternating some days spent at home and in the garden with some days away doing fun things with my family.   Had some commitments this morning to keep but spent the afternoon working in the garden.   The broccoli (Premium Crop) and the swiss chard (Bright Lights) seedlings needed to be transplanted out.   I have been hardening them off for the past several days and they were definitely ready to go into the ground.               

I did a quick cultivation and raking of the soil in the bed area to be planted and then used a stick to mark out a grid of 1-foot spaces in an area 5 feet long by 4 feet wide.             

The broccoli plants (20 of them) were then transplanted into the bed and copper collars for slug management were placed around the stems.   These were then watered well and given some protection by putting the grow tunnel cover back up over the bed.         

The swiss chard seedlings (16 of them) were similarly planted up in an 8-foot section of the largest vertical grow bed.                                           

After lunch I got started on the big 2010 potato experiment.   I have been growing potatoes successfully for some time now in raised boxed edge beds using a trenching method.   This trenching method produces a reliable harvest but also wastes valuable growing real estate with the wide spacing between trenches.   The yields I have been getting are good but not superior and I have decided to up my game this year with the potato patch and see if I can significantly increase my harvest amounts per 100 square feet.   I already know my trenching method equals or exceeds the bin, furrow, and heavy mulching methods for production, so I am not going to waste time reverting back to any of those methods.   What I have decided to do instead is give the John Jeavon's method a try.   This entails doing a double dig and planting the potatoes on top of the loosened soil at the bottom of each trench and then covering it with the soil from the next trench to be dug.   The seed potatoes are buried much more deeply right from the beginning (approximately 9 inches or more) but in really loose soil resulting from the double dig.   You do not hill or add more layers, which is appealing in that once planted it is a relatively no fuss method of planting.   The initial planting is more work though since you are double digging the bed as you go.   If the bed has been previously double dug then it really should be fairly easy work.

Before I get too much further in describing this I must post a disclaimer – I have never used this method and do not know anyone personally who has ever done this.   I would encourage anyone interested in this to watch how this goes for me first before committing yourself in any fashion to planting this way.   I am willing to gamble a bit and just dive in and do it because the basic methodology makes good sense to me and is in keeping with the other biointensive methods I employ.   However, I don’t want anyone to think that this is a tried and true method for me because it is not.     I am taking a calculated gamble that this will work and feel fairly confident that it will, however there is the niggling worry about the potato shoots having to grow such a long ways before finally breaking through the surface of the soil.    Disclaimer completed, I will get on with describing how this works!  

The potatoes are planted with a spacing of 9 inches between them.   The next row over is approximately nine inches from the first and the spuds are offset from the prior row to create a diamond pattern.   A while ago I made a planting board for this purpose - which has spacing marked at 9 inch intervals on one edge, and the same intervals marked on the other edge but offset.                                 

The bed was prepared last weekend by placing rock minerals (rock phosphate and greensand), organic all purpose fertilizer, and compost on the surface of the entire bed.   To get started with the planting today I needed a garden spade, a garden fork, a garden rake, the planting board, a standing board (to distribute weight and minimize the soil compaction in the bed while double digging), and a wheelbarrow to hold the soil removed from the first trench.                      

Standing on the board, I use the spade to remove soil across the width of the bed, creating a trench that is approximately as wide as the spade and as deep.      

The soil from this first trench is placed in the wheelbarrow and set aside to be used at the very last step to fill in the final trench.                   

The garden fork is then used to loosen the soil at the bottom of the trench by digging into the soil and lifting.   Since this bed has been double dug before the soil is not that compacted and the digging was relatively easy to do.   It’s been four years now since I originally double dug this bed and I am encouraged by the good tilth and quality of the soil in the bed.              

The planting board is laid next to the trench and seed potatoes are then placed in the bottom of the trench to line up with the marks on the board.    

The planting board is then reversed so it is ready for the next trench.   Standing on the board again, the next trench is then dug with the soil being placed into the first trench.                                               

The bottom of that trench is again loosened using the fork and then the planting board is placed next to it and the seed potatoes are again put into the bottom of the trench.     Because the board was reversed, the potatoes are placed in an alternating pattern to the first trench’s potato placement.       

The process is then repeated for the third and each subsequent trench until you are completed.                           

I have a 32 foot bed that I am planting up in potatoes and to avoid undue stress on my back, I am pacing myself with the planting process.   Today I completed an 8-foot section of the bed or 1/4th of it.   I used a rake to smooth and level the soil over the bed sections I had completed.              

A side benefit of this method is that the planting bed is given a rejuvenating double dig in the process.  This picture does not do full justice to the quality and texture of the soil in this bed - it is really outstanding.                       

I will be working on this periodically over the remainder of the week to get this planting up process completed.   Then, as the growing season progresses, I will provide updates on how this is going.   Hopefully this will work as described - but if not, then I will have to resort to purchasing potatoes for one year.   Would not be happy about that but it would not be the end of the world either.   Wish me luck!