Raised Bed

Well, friends, I have been working my plot for several days now, and learning all I can about the environment we're dealing with, and it is not encouraging. Tonight my wife, Jennie, and I worked about 30 minutes to make a 10 ft x 4 ft raised bed. We dug down in a pathway and threw the dirt onto the bed. The idea is to get the plant root zone up away from the water table which right now is less than a foot below the surface. Most vegetables won't do very well with wet roots. They need water, but they also need good drainage. By piling the soil up into mounds, we can get better drainage. At 30 minutes per 40 sq ft, it will take us 138 hours to mound 1/4 acre, if we could work at the rate we worked this evening. That is more than 3 normal work-weeks of back-breaking work.

The soil that we're working with has been plowed once and gone over twice by Bruce King with his tractor-mounted rototiller. It is mostly 'bricks' of sod. It takes a lot of chopping to work it fine enough for most seeds to sprout in it. So figure on at least another 138 hours or a total of 276 man-hours of work to prepare 1/4 acre by hand before planting.

Now that is for garden-quality seedbeds. Most farmers are satisfied with a lot more coarse ground than that. I can plant corn in a furrow made in the existing tillage, but that corn will be planted within about 6 inches of the water table. Corn needs better drainage than that. So I am not encouraged about corn. I'll do it, but I won't have high expectations.

I suspect that one of the best crops for this area will be broccoli and the other brassicas (cabbage, kale, etc). They will have to be on raised beds to get good drainage. I plan to prepare lots of seedlings to be set out in July for fall and winter harvest.

Next Winter's Garden

We haven't even got this spring garden planted yet but it is time to think already about next winter. Since winter is one of the most productive times in Northwest gardens, it is worth some planning.

So what are good winter crops? Greens: kale and arugula, brassicas: Brussel Sprouts and Broccoli, root crops like turnips, carrots, parsnips.

Plan to start these crops from seed in June for winter harvest. You can make a nursery bed for starting the greens and brassicas. Then transplant to appropriate spacing when the plants are 2-3 inches high. You should be able to harvest fresh vegetables all winter long. When these plants mature during the winter months they are much slower to bolt (go to seed), which means that you can stretch out the harvest much longer.

Root crops like carrots and parsnips can be left in the ground in this climate and dug as needed through the winter. In the case of StarBird Farm with our high winter water tables, be sure to mound up the soil at least 8 inches above nominal ground level to ensure good drainage come winter.

(Don't leave potatoes in the ground. They have a much greater tendancy to rot.)

Of course, there is always the possibility of fall flooding in the Snohomish valley which could completely wipe out winter gardens. A good farmer provides him or herself with as many alternatives as reasonable. For that reason, also plan to freeze at least broccoli from your summer garden for winter eating. If we're lucky, and you have planned ahead, you may have fresh broccoli to eat and the frozen broccoli can be made into soup.

Brussel sprouts require a long, cool growing season. Don't be too quick about getting them planted this spring. If you plant seed in June, you should be able to harvest by Thanksgiving and then all winter.

Hey, with a large garden and realtively inexpensive seeds you should be able to grow a lot of fresh winter vegetables.