It was more work than I expected too.
I got to the new squash garden today. I have had to move them due to the reassignment of their area to a pole bean yard. Handily I have an area that has opened up this year that allows me to have 36 spots to plant in. So around noon I finally was able to get outside and start tilling. I ran a pass down the outer limit by the fence posts and then realized that I needed to do a good bit of clean up before I set about actually tilling.
This is the "new" area that I have now tilled. It was tilled 3 or 4 years ago with a box tiller but the weeds have taken it back over. The use of this area brings me very close to completely using the max space in the fenced garden.
This area has had crops every year so the soil tilled super easy and was free of weeds.
Both areas tilled up fairly easily with only a few smaller rocks pulled out of the newer area. The soil is really good and should do extremely well for the squash this year. I am going to be interested to see the difference between the north half and the south half. The sun shines on the north half far more during the day due to some trees south of the garden.
I love being able to reuse things. The plastic for the new squash garden is the old one cut down to fit. I was able to cut off the sections that did not fit and each one is usable as well.
The pieces I cut from the sides were cut into lengths that fit the rest of the tilled area. I got the plastic all figured out and cut to size with weight rocks in place around 3 sides.
Irrigation is an essential part of the process so I had to do a bit of augmentation of the existing line. Another wonderful part of moving the squash garden is the irrigation moved right along with the plastic. I needed to put in a couple of 1x1x1/2 Ts to connect the 2 lines that I removed from the old manifold. Each line has 15 emitters spaced at 4 feet.
The shitty part was that I had to remove the plastic now in order to lay the irrigation lines where they needed to be. The story of my life seems to be repetition, so this was not surprising to me, just a tiny bit annoying. Whatever, it got done and the plastic all back and weighted down.
The fence back tight and in place and the garden closer to planting I put up a deer deterrent line. It is a bunch of fiberglass poles from an old electric sheep fence that I slotted into the fence. The top of each pole has a slot that accepts the stainless wire that I have on hand. After grafting a few pieces together I was able to make the distance around the 2 side of the garden. I had to use some pvc in a couple of spots for strength and for numbers. The strips of tin foil are a visual cue for the monsters so they don't strangle themselves trying to jump through the wire.
It took far longer than I was hoping but it is done and the area will be planted tomorrow after noon. It is what it is. this year is later than last year so it is just a rush to try and get things done asap. The sooner the seed are in the sooner I should be harvesting.
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Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce
