Last year during spring I planted squash in pots as an experiment. I started gardening with an apartment container garden, and I like to do that still, as container gardening lets you try things on the fly - planting things you might not normally without wasting garden space, as well as adjusting placing for best sun,shade, and rain.
Although various things led to a rot setting in on my squash plants - I did manage to find a decent spot for growing.
I said then that this year I'd put in a dedicated space for growing squash along side the driveway by the back gate. At the end of Winter I knocked down all the weeds in the strip and kept it pretty clear, watched the rainwater to see where it ran, and prepared for Spring for another round of Man vs Squash.
The strip itself is pretty long - some 30ft long. But I don't want to put in a couple of days of getting the entire thing set up if it's going to be a bogus spot - and besides I have plans this year for the lower 10ft (seen in the top photo) - so I figured this year I'd 'test the grounds'.
I took about 8ft to prep and see where it led. That's more than enough room for 6 plants, and I can run a trellis up the fence to try and avoid rot if the conditions get too wet as they did last year. The plants would put squash out, but the second they hit the ground they would mold up and have to be removed. Eventually the conditions got so damp that it moved to the plants themselves.
I managed to salvage one late planted Butternut Squash, and really enjoyed it - so this year we'll take the lessons and try and expand a little.
A soil rake makes quick work of the newly emerging weeds and grass - this took around 5 mins.
Hoe to loosen up the dirt, and shovel to clear it out. I dug about 6 inches down - and started to run into some gravel - I suspect this is probably gravel and crushed limestone from when the driveway was put in.
The dirt was dug out into a big plastic garbage can I use to haul leaves, weeds, and other stuff to the compost frame. Visible weeds as well as roots and other things were removed as well. I'm going to be putting this dirt back in with some other goodies - as replacing all this would be a bit of a waste - the dirt is dark and good - and plenty of earthworms are living in there. I also went over with a garden fork and removed things like nut-grass and other weeds that have little tuber like roots that spread all over.
The gravel gave me an idea - the previous owners had used jaggedy-arse lava rock in their landscaping - I hate it. I like to walk barefoot in my yard, and my kids pick up anything they can lay their hands on. I am going to replace some edging with riverstones at some point - but this stuff has to go. It is, however, a medium of choice in things like aquaponics due to its surface area - it's also used for drainage. I had a bucket full that I'd pulled up (and plenty more where that came from) that has been sitting around for 6 months - so I dug a 3 inch trench down the center and laid it down - it should help with drainage there, and if water wants to sit there it will be lower than the bed proper, allowing the moisture to wick back up. I want to run some experiments in the future with wicking properties, this is a good place to start.
Plastic edging was added to stop lawn and weeds running back into the bed - I had this left over from my pool project last year - so I figured I'd put it to good use.
Landscaping fabric was added to stop weeds underneath that may still be around from having an easy time making it back up. Also it will allow water to run back through the fence while leaving the dirt in the bed. A couple of landscaping staples help hold it in place while you ready your dirt.
The dirt was shovelled back in, adding 2 bricks of coconut coir, perlite, worm castings, and in what might turn out to be a not so great decision; A bag and a half or Organic Manure I had left over from last year and won't be buying again. As I said in my post on building a bed - look for the word COMPOSTED on the bag when buying it - when water hit this stuff last year it set up the soil like concrete.. ok not quite, but hard enough that seedlings couldn't bust through it. In many squares where I put a bunch in, it was several months before it started to break down and mix in... anyways - this stuff had to go, and I figured this was as good a place as any to get rid of it. In hindsight perhaps composting it would have been a better move... Live and learn.
As it is, it's not going to make that much difference, as Squash is planted in mounds. New potting mix was put down to hold the seeds, and each mound is made in an inch or so depression - by the time to root goes down to tap, it should be strong enough to burrow. That's the idea anyways. I spaced them out with some room - we have 2 yellow squash, 2 zucchini , and 2 butternut squash - as they pop up they'll be thinned back, a trellis will probably be added if needed (for the butternut squash it will be as it's a runner and climber), and we'll see about what grows well with them to utilize the space around them if possible.
We'll check and monitor these over this Spring and Summer - if the position is worthwhile I'll expand it down the driveway next year - if it isn't - well it can be planted out with flowers to try and attract pollinators.
As I'm writing this, we just had a big rain - I was going to make a post on fixing and planting out another part of the garden, but figured with the rain it would be more objective to see if my tweaks actually did any good... also it gives the newly planted seeds a chance to pop up, as there's nothing more boring than a post of blank earth with 'this is where I planted some stuff!'.
While I was out I cleared out the white storage racks I'd been using. They've served me well but were never meant for outdoor use - they were the cheapest thing I could find and have been used since 2008 - older than my kids!
I had some more robust ones sitting outside in my 'when I get around to it' pile at the end of the driveway. Taking the opportunity I cleaned up and organized a bit.
I've been phasing out my cheapy pots from the first garden, and replacing them with spa pots over the last couple of years - I took the opportunity to get rid of some and pass them onto my Stepdaughters friend who is getting into gardening herself, but like me when I started, didn't have available pocketmoney to throw out there for the initial hardware... they should have a few more years worth of life left in them.
Hoping this rain clears and gives me a nice surprise to post about in a couple of days time!
Cheers!
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