Easy Peasy Vegetable Gardening

You do need some supplies, which you might have, can substitute, or can accumulate before garden season comes around again if it is something you'd like to try.

I told all of my friends and relatives that I wanted all their old tarps, holey, ripped, torn, or whole that they wanted to get rid of. You do need a lot of these.

I take all of my compost and all of the oak leaves I can find and spread them over the area of ground that I want for my garden. I also choose a spot close enough to a rain spout so that I can direct rainfall off the roof to the garden with cheap plastic store-bought tubing.

I tarp the area and place boards, bricks, or anything to keep the tarps down and smother the grass, weeds, or whatever else is in the spot where I want to plant my garden. I actually had some long used boards given to me that I always use to hold the tarps where I want them, and they work really well. As I find oak leaves, I uncover the tarps and put more on through the fall and winter. (NOTE: folks rake up their leaves and bag them, and if I see a yard with lots of oak trees in it, I have been known to relieve them of some of their unwanted bagged leaves.)

In spring I untarp my area. I turn the ground over with a shovel (while it’s easy) in short 5’-10’ long rows X 18”wide. If I can’t shovel the whole row, I just turn the area that the plant will be going in. All my plants are grown upright in cages back to back down the row (except bush squash, spinach, and lettuce). I invested in heavy-duty square folding cages. They go up easily, take down easily, stack easily for winter, and can be stacked tall to accommodate my much loved Goliath tomato (plants). Peas, cucumbers, and beans are grown on a chain link dog kennel panel (these work the best for me, and you can get them used, cheap or free, off local ads). I prefer a 6 X 10’ panel, attached securely (but easily removable) in an upright position, for peas, cucumbers, and beans. Melons and vine squash work best for me on a leaning panel. I lean mine on a heavy-duty iron trellis or two. There are lots of ways to hold the kennel panel up, but it has to be strong and well secured if you’re going to grow small melons or vine squash on it.

I fold the tarps thick and use them between the rows, so I have very, very little weeding to do (some weeds, but not many, will have to be pulled when they come up around the plants themselves). The tarps retain water in the ground between the rows, so the ground stays hydrated. I have really sandy soil here, which dries out quickly, so I also route rain water through tubing from a nearby rain spout to the garden. It goes to the cucumbers first, because they love as much water as they can get here. I’d also like to think the tarps help retain the effects of the compost and oak leaves around the plant for continued nutrients throughout the growing season.

There is little to no weeding and little to no watering; just spring/fall prep and picking totally organic vegetables though the summer/fall.

When the garden's done, I pull out all of the old vegetable plants and compost, pull up the folding cages, remove the dog kennel panel/s, and turn some dirt if I feel like it (it's typically easy again in the fall). I put down compost, oak leaves, and tarp for next year. Once the garden is not producing as well as I think it should, or mostly because bugs have gotten too bad, I move my garden area.