Two Feet in the Dirt

This is the first farm that I have set up from scratch, so we’ve had to make decisions about things that on previous farms had already been established. If you are getting ready to set up your own garden in anticipation of the coming growing season, here are two bits of advice from what I’ve learned:

First, think carefully about how wide you want your beds to be. I have almost always worked on farms where the beds are 4 feet wide. However, in doing some reading in advance of setting up our farm, I was convinced to try 2.5-foot-wide beds instead and, let me tell you, what an amazing change! The biggest benefit of these narrower beds is being able to step over them easily and to reach the middle when planting, weeding, and harvesting. When determining the width of beds in your own garden, definitely consider things like this. It makes gardening much more enjoyable when you eliminate unnecessary strain on your body.

Second, consider laying a tarp over your beds next winter. This is the first year I have tarped any beds. This was recommended to me by multiple books and by a farming friend back in Philadelphia. It can be hard to get into beds in a timely manner in early spring because of how wet the soil becomes from winter precipitation and freeze/thaw cycles. The logic behind tarping is that by fulling preparing beds for planting before winter sets in and then covering them with a thick tarp, the beds will be ready to plant as soon as you pull the tarp back in the spring. The beds that I have under our huge, 4,000 square foot silage tarp were in perfect condition when I pulled the tarp back last week to start planting our onions. The tarp kept the beds dry and warm and suppressed the weeds. All I had to do was lay down and incorporate compost and the beds were ready to plant. Tarping may be my new favorite farming trick and I would definitely recommend it for the home garden, too!