Vegetable Gardens

This year, we finally integrated our last vego garden bed into the vegetable garden, swapped the front beds for shorter ones, and are trying our hand at a new irrigation system.  After a lack-luster vegetable garden last year (so many volunteers... and so many squash beetles), we revamped the beds with fresh soil, and took down the chicken wire enclosure.  Without the netting over the top and the fence proximity, it wasn't the deterrent we needed, and made it more of a pain to access the garden. Plus, the squash explosion last year proved it wasn't quite what we needed when it pulled a whole side down.  

Since May is plant sale season in Minnesota, I was able to stock up on a lot of different things!  Getting them into the ground can be a little tricky: we went from freezing most of the day to blistering hot when the sun is out in a matter of a few days!  So, there were days of good bursts to get things put into the beds and into the ground, and we worked whenever the sun wasn't a major setback.

The Raised Beds

I love using raised beds for our vegetable gardens for a few reasons: I live in an old neighborhood, and our yard is wrapped pretty effectively with alleys and areas that have had car access.  With the age of our lot, and my love of growing root vegetables, the risk of lead contamination in our soil is high.  With fruity plants, like tomatoes, this isn't a huge factor: the inert mineral isn't taken up into the roots.  But it can get onto the roots of some of our other favorites -carrots, beets, and radishes! Even if there was never lead paint in this corner, I know we moved into the old parking pad, and lead in fuel wasn't completely phased out until 1996. 

The biggest reason for using raised beds is having easy access to all parts of the plant for me, but not for everyone.  Our set up with stone paths, metal underlayment, and these Vego Garden metal beds keeps most critters out of our produce while making it easier for me and the big kids.  Since most foods are annual here instead of perennial, it also helps me keep a dedicated space just for our food garden. 

The metal for these beds is rust-free and inert: there will never be a risk of chemical leaching or the beds collapsing due to wood rot.  These should last us for several decades without any trouble.  We're already three years in, and it's been a great shift for us! I also love that these match my roof, playhouse, and chicken coop.  It's a vibe over here.

The Irrigation System

I'm trying a new type of irrigation system this year, with these cotta cups from Thirsty Earth.  These combine the ease of drip irrigation with the direct-to-soil benefits of a terracotta olla.  The terracotta cups get buried in the soil, and the irrigation lines run from an easy-to-fill storage tank directly to the cups.  There is no guessing on fullness, since it's easy to check the total volume of the system by checking the tank level.  

We have several tanks, and each need to be checked and filled each week.  The system does need to be primed, but this is simple enough by loosening the priming screw on the very last cotta cup.  It can't be run by a typical drip-irrigation timer, because the demand is run through pull from the cups.  Running a hose directly to the cups can cause the terra cotta to break from the pressure.  Gravity-fed, it is. 

​Overall, I'm looking forward to what we get to grow this garden season!  I'm really hopeful the changes we've made to the garden keeps things easier for me and better for the plants.  Our short growing season sometimes makes these adjustments tricky! Still to come is a new fence surrounding the beds.  After seeing a few rabbits and the number they've done to the lettuce and broccoli, I'll be getting some kind of enclosure set up really soon.