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This raised bed vegetable garden plan reflects almost a decade of gardening experience. Take a look at the River Road garden layout and photos—and get some great ideas!
River Road Garden Story
The credit for our vegetable garden plan goes to my wife (the engineer), who wanted the geometric designs, and her brother, who first built the structures with 6” wood (while I was away working!). I’ve since replaced most of the structures with 12” wood. We’ve been gardening for about seven to ten years.
Our permanent or semi-permanent crops include raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries.
Annual plants (rotated and not grown every year) have included muskmelon, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, acorn and winter squash, okra, beans, potatoes, cilantro, tomatoes, brussels sprouts, and broccoli.
We also grow various herbs and flowers for butterflies and bees.
No pesticides or herbicides are used, but I have used some granular fertilizers that are probably not classified as organic. And we recently started using more chicken manure and worm castings. I have a mulch bin, but it’s much too small for my needs.
The garden is lots of work from spring to fall. I almost hate to take “long” holidays. Even though someone will water, I leave it in great shape and return to chaos. Raspberries take the most maintenance - by a long shot!
Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana. Read More from Catherine Boeckmann