grdnguru's blog: Back from vacation

Our family just finished a great vacation cruising on the Carnival Pride out of the Port of Baltimore. I cannot say enough good things about our experience as it was fun and the crew was fantastic to say the least.
While I was on vacation, I had some time every morning to think before getting busy with the activities onboard and the ports of calls. And it became clear to me that it is time to begin renovations to my garden. I want to get more production and make it easier to maintain. I have two uneven beds that are producing but I've had a feeling that I am not getting the maximum utility out the space I have available.
The first order of business will be to even out the beds. As seen below, the right bed is shorter than the left bed.



This is from a different perspective.



I will shorten the left bed and stretch the right bed so they won't go beyond the fence post. I think it will give the beds symmetry and make working them easier. I have hopes that it will allow me to use soaker hoses connected to my rain barrels next year.
I know this appears to give me less space for my plants but there is another area I can use that I presently am not. Behind each bed is a walk way along the neighbors fence.



I plan, at this time, to pull the pavers up behind each bed and run the bricks directly to the fence. My initial calculations show that this will be a small net gain in space.
Another idea I have is to widen the beds to perhaps 5 to 6 feet each. I still have to do some calculations to see if that is both plausible and necessary. After all, I can expand the garden to the whole area but the question remains, do I need that much space? I am not totally convinced as of yet. But that is down the road a bit and there are other necessities to address first.
I'd certainly appreciate any input from anyone with experience in this area. Happy gardening everyone!

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