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             The Gardener Guy of Tulsa, Oklahoma

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How Much Garden

Longin Ambros has a tractor with a rototiller attachment and a manure spreader so it's easy for him to prepare a large plot. He likes to have enough space for pumpkins and winter squash to spread out, and he plants their tomatoes four feet apart - a luxury that most gardeners don't have. By giving more space to the plants, they don't shade each other or compete for resources. They love corn, and grow enough to freeze some and give away more.

Melissa and Longin recognize that having such a large garden is not for everyone. Although Mrs. Ambros was speaking of flower gardens, her advice makes sense for vegetable gardens, too: "Don't plant more at 35 than you can reasonably take care of in your eighties." She also noted that, "If you choose plants (flowers) wisely, they'll take care of themselves." Her perennial border reflects good choices: daylilies, peonies, and iris among them.

In contrast to the Ambros' garden is one I am making for two elderly friends of mine in Cornish Flat, Rita Bannister and Gladys LaClair. In Rita's back yard I have removed a small piece of lawn, 12 feet long by 9 feet wide. In that plot I will help them to grow a cornucopia of vegetables.

I laid out the garden using nylon rope and 4 grade stakes. I believe that it is worthwhile to take a few extra minutes to measure carefully and keep the sides straight and square. I used a carpenter's framing square to help me get good 90 degree angles, and a tape measure to make the parallel sides equal.

Since grass roots are not killed by rototilling, I had to remove all the sod before planting the garden. I used an edging tool - a crescent-shaped 9-inch blade on a long wooden handle - to slice through the turf all the way around the garden. Then I cut 9-inch strips across the garden bed. I did this by pushing down on the edger with one foot, then pulling the handle back and forth to loosen the sod. I removed the sod by prying it out with a garden fork which I jabbed into the sod, loosening foot-wide chunks. I shook the soil out of the roots by banging it against the ground or my fork. Removing all the sod took me about 2 hours, and I used it to start a compost pile. An nine-foot wide garden yields two 30-inch wide beds with 12-inch walkways down the center of the garden and around the outside of each bed. The walkways allow me to reach all parts of the raised beds without stretching. I believe that wide raised beds are more productive than flat garden rows, and allow one to add plenty of composted manure.

To make raised beds I loosen the soil in the walkways with a garden fork and rake about 4 inches of it onto the beds. Creating a ditch (the walkway) between the beds and the lawn has the added advantage of helping to keep grass from creeping into the garden beds.

I always add composted cow manure to enrich the soil of a new bed, and this also raises the height of the beds. I use my garden fork to stir the manure into the beds. This little garden will use a dozen 34-quart bags of MooDoo composted cow manure. Bagged composted manure is better than fresh manure because it is not stinky or sticky, and should not contain any weed seeds.

So what can we grow in an 9-foot by 12-foot garden? Here's our plan: 3 tomatoes (1 Big Boy, 1 Brandywine heirloom slicer, 1 Sungold cherry tomato). Each tomato will get two feet of a row, and will be enclosed in a wire cage. The garden runs north-south, and to minimize shade on other plants we'll put the tomatoes on the north end of the garden (two in the western row, one in the eastern).

On the west side of the garden we'll also have lettuce, half a dozen Swiss chard plants, some yellow wax beans, a cucumber plant and a summer squash plant. On the east side we'll have radishes, two broccoli plants, 4 green peppers, a teepee of pole beans, plenty of carrots and a few potatoes. If I can find them, we'll also have some scallions.

The hardest work of any garden is in preparing the soil and starting the garden. After that? Just a few minutes a day to pull weeds - and harvest the goodies. You don't need a huge garden to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Henry Homeyer is a gardening consultant and the author of three gardening books. His web site is www.Gardening-Guy.com.