Lessons From Experience

Lessons From Experience

As a new gardening season begins old experiences are incorporated into the new plan. New ideas will be tried to see what will work. Some of these new ideas will stay in next years plan, others will provide valuable lessons. Some of the changes coming for this year:
1) The direction of the rows is changing from east west to north south, in hopes of maximizing sunlight.
2) The tomato fence is changing structure. In the past It has been a rail fence with rails used as uprights on 4’ centers to raise the height to 8’. This year the rails will be the posts on 4’ centers. There will be a few extra rails incorporated diagonally for bracing. The tomatoes will only be on the east side of the fence. I’m not sure whether the west side will have beans or cucumbers. I need to check the companion planting chart.
3) The watermelon fence was a great idea. This year it will have a finer mesh plastic fence on top to keep the little melons from falling through the wire.
4) The winter squash will be planted on a rail fence with 2”X4” wire backing. Spaghetti squash has not been a very successful venture in the past. It is so good that it is worth trying again.
5) The rows are heavily mulched with leaves now. These will be tilled into the soil. Excess will be raked into the pathways. The pathways will not be tilled at all. The hope is that this will discourage weeds in the pathways and kill fewer earthworms in the tilling process.








David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.