[gardening]
Expand Beyond Your Garden’s Boundaries Set the stage for a productive growing season and bountiful harvest
BY EVA ROSE MONTANE || ABUNDANTEARTHGARDENS.COM || GARDENING@COLORADOCOUNTRYLIFE.ORG
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What comes out of your garden hinges on what you put into your garden. Careful thought, planning and preparation of your garden will produce much more gratifying results. Prior to sowing seeds, put some muscle into preparing the space and soil. Before you know it, delicious fruits and vegetables and eye-popping posies will be sprouting before your eyes.
Bed size and shape
When planning a new garden bed it can be difficult to visualize the space it will occupy. Try getting out a garden hose and placing it around the perimeter of the proposed bed to see how it looks. Move it around until you get it just where you want it. Once you do, use spray paint to keep track of your design plan. Curves can add a more organic rhythm to the space, but avoid making them too wiggly; broader sweeping curves result in a more pleasing aesthetic. Foundation plantings are not recommended because they can cause damage to your home’s foundation. Make at least enough room to comfortably walk between your walls or fence once your plantings are mature, and have your beds extend far enough into the yard that you can admire them through the windowing from inside the house.
Preparing the soil
Whether you are growing a perennial flower bed with shrubs and trees or annual vegetables, you’ll want to start by double digging the bed. First though, make sure your soil is not too ColoradoCountryLife.coop 22 June 2013
wet. Saturated soil fills in air pockets and that is hard on roots. Robert Nold, author of High and Dry, encourages the doubledigging method particularly in our climate, given our native soils. It entails removing the soil about a shovel deep throughout the whole bed and then loosening the soil beneath that to the same approximate depth; roughly one foot deep for each layer. Loosen the soil from one end to the other using a short-handled four-tined soil fork. This will aerate the soil and allow the roots to move through it more easily, grow healthily and establish nicely. Replace the top foot of soil you previously removed, taking care to tread on it as little as possible. Of course this is nearly impossible to achieve with a large bed, but do your best. To help protect it from compaction, lay a board across the area where you need to stand to work the bed. This is especially important with vegetable beds, because the roots of annual vegetable plants tend to be finer and more delicate. The diversity typical with a perennial garden includes plants with roots that reach to varying depths and, as a result, help to knit the soil together and prevent erosion. Consider the color and texture of the plants you plan to grow, because what you choose will add to the aesthetic beauty you aim to achieve. Eva Rose Montane hosts a cutting-edge series on gardening in Colorado. Read more gardening advice at coloradocountrylife. coop. Click on Living in Colorado and then Gardening.