I have another generic question, being new to the gardening world.
I have 4 small beds for now that I’m growing vegetables and herbs in, just because they already existed and I didn’t have the ability to rototill more. I rather like having the small beds, since I can easily reach all parts of them for weeding and maintenance.
However my neighbors all have large rectangular plots of tilled land. I see that watering is easier that way, weeding too since they leave room in between the rows to rototill up the weeds.
I just like the way my beds look, pretty as a picture, surrounded by grass, bushes, and trees.
Any thoughts on what is the best (I probably mean the easiest) gardening method when there is plenty of land available?
Plants that need frequent tending, like tomatoes and green beans, I prefer to have in beds. That way I can walk through and harvest every day without compacting the soil, and it’s easier to reach all parts of the plant.
Plants that don’t need frequent tending, like dry corn or winter squash, I prefer in plots, because I’m basically planting and ignoring them. Plots are more efficient use of space, because you don’t need to leave a path every few feet.
If I was growing sweet corn, I’d probably have it in something in between those two. A plot with every 4th or 5th row missing, so I could reach the middle ones, but still have them close enough together for good pollination. (Corn is wind-pollinated.)
Like with so many things, the answer is “it depends” :)
It’s really a personal decision. I tend to like the tidiness of raised beds. I don’t till anything, and I plant the veggies close enough together that I usually don’t have any weeding to do.
I use gravity feed to drain water from the swimming pool using a garden hose, and just move it down the hill as needed. It goes slow enough and the Mel’s Mix drinks it fast enough that I haven’t really felt I needed to put in a drip system.
Sometimes I use a five gallon bucket half full to tote some water to a few bedraggled extras and containers.
Hubby used to have the large plots too. Now he has been converting to the raised bed concept. In the large plots, he has raised beds about 4 foot wide and a very narrow space between where he laid some old carpet to keep it from being muddy and keep from walking on the beds or in the mud.
I’d rather he use something else besides old carpet, but to each his own.