More On The Garden

Here is the photo of the garden taken from the greenhouse roof. The quality is not the best. We got about 3/4" of rain last night and this morning and it was hazy when I shot this.

The right foreground, which is covered with black plastic, was sod last year - hence the plastic. Staked tomatoes are on the right, peppers in the center and unstaked, uncaged tomatoes on left. Just to the left of that, off the plastic, is celery. It's hard to see from this angle because the tomatoes are taller but it's doing very well.

Behind this area are potatoes. The first row is in bottomless buckets with the following rows planted traditionally in hilled furrows. We planted German Butterball, Red Pontiac, Green Mountain, Russet Burbank, and Austrian Crescent.

Behind the potatoes are two short rows of beans. To the left is a compost bin which contains the remains of the 2006 chicken butchering. Behind and to the left of it are more beans (snap type).

Then we have 3 rows of corn hills running the entire width with more beans behind that. We're growing a lot of dry beans this year - Black Coco, Soldier, Tiger Eye, Vermont Cranberry, and Taylor's Dwarf Horticultural. Unfortunately, we've misplaced the diagram that tells us which is which so we'll have to wait for harvest.

Behind the beans is the broccoli with cabbage behind that. Then 3 more rows of corn hills. The garlic was behind that but it's already been harvested and is curing.

The left foreground that isn't shown has strawberries and the peas and lettuce which have already been harvested and not succession planted. The remaining bedding from the ram pen will go here after finishing the 10' extension of the growing area in the immediate foreground of the photo.

Scott asked about rotating the location of the garden. Since we're moving to a no-till, mulched system of annual production, we won't be changing the location of the garden - just rotating the plants within the space. I have been giving some thought to growing small grains in the pasture which would probably be a 5-7 year rotation. Annuals for three years, then back to perennial polyculture for 2-4 years.