The Modern Victory Garden

In my last blog post I talked about pushing the “jungle” back that grows right at the edge of the back portion of my garden.   One of the comments on that blog post was from vrtlarica who had not realized I had such a dense forest area immediately adjacent to my garden – the concern being (understandably) that the trees were sun blockers for my garden.   While it is true that a dark and dense forest edges the north side of the garden, it is also true that the south side adjoins our expansive front lawn and house.   The tree line on the south side of the property is far enough away from the garden area such that during the main growing season (April - September) the sun passes over the horizon (east to west) arcing high enough on the horizon that it clears the trees easily.   However, the footprint of land that the vegetable garden occupies is the only area on our property that gets adequate sun for a vegetable garden and even with that, there is a portion of the older side garden area that receives less sun than is optimal.   I make the best of that situation by limiting what I grow in those beds to greens and other semi-shade tolerant crops.   I save the better growing areas for the more demanding crops that produce fruits or set mature seed.   If I had the luxury of choosing a site purely for the purposes of growing my vegetable garden – clearly I would choose elsewhere!   But the reality is that I work with what I have because (like most folks) I have multiple reasons why I ended up living where I do and the garden was just one need to be addressed in that purchase decision.   Other things factored into our housing choice were a desired location (proximity to places we love to spend time at), ease and reasonableness of my daily work commute, affordability, size and style of the home, suitable outbuildings, natural beauty of surroundings, and general condition of the place.   In general I think we made a good match on all factors but not everything was a home run because we had to optimize the desired features for the price we were willing to pay.   As a result my garden area is good – but not great.                             

Just to give you an idea of the size of the trees in the forest that surrounds our home, here is a picture of our front yard and drive entry.   That is a full grown Japanese Maple tree in the lower right hand corner! It looks like  a dwarf in comparison to the tall timber growing in the woodlot.                

The good things about my garden include;

• We live and garden in a mild maritime growing climate that allows for easily over wintering cold hardy crops and an extended growing opportunity in the early spring and late fall if you know how to work it
• Soil that is naturally slightly sandy and (for the most part) free of rocks (honest!)
• It is largely concealed from view, which makes it my “secret” garden and private retreat
• It is just a few steps away from either my front or back door
• While limited to a specific footprint of land, it is adequately sized to provide all of our vegetable needs and a good portion of fruits in any given year
• The naturally abundant rainfall in our area means I have a very short dry season and requires only a brief period of required irrigation each year

The not so great things about my garden are;

• I have gorgeous tall trees surrounding my entire property and while sun availability is adequate it is definitely not maximized by any stretch of the imagination.   In addition, the naturally rainier climate means that what sun is available is often reduced or blocked by heavy cloud cover
• The mild climate means easier winters but also means we get a relatively short “summer” season and it is comparatively cool and often rather damp – heat loving plants pout and don’t grow well here as a result
• Fungus and molds love the cool and moist conditions.
• Slugs are the size of compact cars in my region and are plentiful
• I cannot expand my garden footprint beyond the current configuration because of the sun availability constraints unless we do a wholesale deforestation of our surrounding woodlots (not going to happen)

In an ideal world we would have purchased a house with a prime garden site but sadly my world is not ideal.   Actually, most people’s worlds are not ideal!   In fact, I would be willing to bet that you have features about your garden that are limiting or deficient, such as limited space, limited sun availability/exposure, less than ideal soil conditions, harsh growing climates, or short growing seasons.                    

Our challenge is to work with what we have to grow as much of our food as is possible in each of our own unique circumstances.             

The thinking gardener recognizes the problem areas and works to either resolve them, adjust to them, or work around them.   I do a bit of all of the above.   Some of the better strategies I have to deal with my gardens limitations are:

• Site my plantings so that plants that tolerate less sun availability are located in the less sunny locations and sun lovers are in the best areas
• Choose varieties that have a better chance of succeeding in my environment – for example tomatoes that are short season and will set fruit in cool conditions.
• I don’t use natural mulches around plantings during the summer as it just keeps the already too cool soil – cooler – and provides a safe haven for my worst garden pests, slugs.   Instead I apply abundant compost in the fall to build organic material in the soil and leave the soil more exposed to sun to encourage a more rapid warm up.in the spring and summer
• I make full use of the available area in my footprint of land that gets adequate sun by growing in pots on my deck and in corners of the garden, growing vertically where possible, and keep the beds in production for a very large part of the year, sometimes for an entire year.

What are your garden’s good and bad points?   Given that, how do you work with what you have?                                

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener