To Row or Not To Row

Our first seed catalog arrived in the mail the other week.  Johnny's Seeds, which used to be a favorite when I was an unofficial farmer.  I love getting the seed catalogs and one of my favorite essays on this topic is by E.B. White, "A Report in Spring," best known for the quote:  "It really comes down to what a man wants from a plate of peas, and what peas have it in their power to give."  Each winter as the seed catalogs come in the proverbial in-box, I remember this essay and start thinking about spring planting . . . 

But I digress . . .

We had a difficult year gardening this year (as I mentioned in my previous post).  We had a lot of travel and Eli was going through a phase, so to speak.  The garden was not on his list of favorite things to do, to say the least.  It got bad enough that I avoided taking him, but since he had the summer off and I was only semi-employed, he came along.  At the end of the season I said that we would not be having a garden next year:  too much work and not enough interested hands.

This led to an interesting conversation, really a series of conversations, about  some of the things Eli did not like about the garden.  He talked about harvesting carrots at school, for example, but when I asked him if he wanted to do this at our garden, he said no (but was happy to eat them once pulled).  We do have some heavy clay and it can be hard to pull the carrots out, but it turned out that Eli wanted rows.

Rows?

I have moved away from rows.  I started using biointensive gardening practices about 15 years ago.  A friend gave me a book called the Postage Stamp Garden by Duane and Karen Newcomb (now out of print, but a great book for small gardens if you can find it).  In it, she lays out a number of wonderful small plot designs.  When implemented, you have companion plants, all nicely grouped together, with some wavy walkways in between.   Over time these ideas have become less of a garden design and more of a free-for-all.  I also am fond of the volunteer sunflowers, cosmos, and occasional mystery plants that find their way into our garden.  In addition, I've started using buckwheat as a green cover crop/mulch.  I plant it around all my summer veggie seeds, so that when the plants are just sprouting, the buckwheat covers the ground.  Then I pull the buckwheat and lay it on the ground.  I got this idea from the Seeds of Change website:  http://www.seedsofchange.com/digging/cover_crops.aspx

The Green Frenzy, 2010

The result, in my eyes, is a wonderfully green frenzy of plants.  But from Eli's perspective, it was a mess that he didn't like to walk through.  The zucchini or squashes scratched his legs.  He couldn't easily see where to step.   In short, he didn't like the mess of it all.

Also, Jeff said he avoided helping with the garden because he wasn't sure what to do. 

Eli navigating the row-less garden, 2010

So, the plan for this year is . . . .  Rows.  We decided that everyone should have their own beds.  It will be a learning process for everyone.  We all usually say what we want to grow, but this year, we'll choose what we put in our beds, and we will be responsible for planting and weeding and mulching and watering.  (With some job sharing, of course.)  It's funny.  Because in my professional life, I understand the value of everyone having a sense of ownership in the plot.  But I hadn't realized how this was lacking from the garden.  Eli will be 6 this spring, so though he can't fully plan out the succession of plants, he can do some of it, and definitely dig, weed, and water. 

So I am envisioning 6 beds (3 long beds bisected in the middle), with 4 paths lengthwise.  Wide rows, so to speak.  (With room in mine for a little mess!)

There is still a part of me learning to let go.  I just heard a little voice say:  "but what about crop rotation so that you don't get pests. . ."  And after I wrote that "what if some of the soil is bare and blows away?"  I guess I'll just have to learn to deal, or make some suggestions along the way. . .  At any rate, I hope that it will make for a better growing season.  For all of us.  Jeff will learn a bit more about gardening.  Eli will be able to pull his own carrots (his favorite garden veggie).  And I'll learn to let go a bit more and just try to enjoy it.  We'll still have plenty to harvest and many more years of growing!

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In looking for garden designs on rows, I came across this photo of lavender.  Someday Jeff, Eli, and I will bike through France.  Mustard fields and lavender.  My friend Ayesha once said she'd like to be buried in a field of lavender.  I think I'm moving in that direction myself!