Labor of Love

While We Wait for our dirt to dry:

I just thought you all would be pleased to see some pictures of Henry Graham's beautiful vegetable garden.  Those of us with a good amount of garden experience know full well how much work and how many years it takes to achieve a garden with good, workable dirt, functional construction like Henry's nicely built walkway and fencing, and a reliable layout that works well year after year.  Those of us who are just getting started with vegetable gardening have learned a lot about it too.  Especially with our first year of development at SPCC's Friendship Garden. 

Our dirt needs a lot of work.  It has an abundance of clay that makes it clump easily...and we have lots of clumps.  We'll just be patient and add plenty of soil amenities as we go.  BJ Simmons suggests after our garden is spent for the summer that plowing before winter, and having a good freeze or two with the dirt exposed to the cold air will go a long way to break up the clumps.  Imagine having dirt that is so workable that one of these commercial wheel hoes is all that is needed to make up consistent, straight planting rows...

Henry's garden dirt is so good, he can achieve the same results with a simple shovel and wheelbarrow contraption that he came up with.  Take a look at the raised rows he was able to make with it.  He tells me he is still working on the design, and that to work properly, the dirt has to be very dry.

It takes a lot of work and patience, but I feel that with the enthusiasm that our group has shown so far, we'll get there, and maybe with some luck thrown in, we'll have a pretty garden like Henry's one day.

I especially like the picture of the zinnias displayed in the foreground against the backdrop of okra.  Nice work, Henry!

Thanks for sharing.