Gardening Report January 13, 2023

We’re taking over a new garden plot, our 3rd (or 3.5th depending on how you count it).

We started with a 10X10 plot near the fence adjoining the parking lot, and after a year there expanded to include an adjoining plot when that gardener gave it up.

Too many people threw trash over the fence onto our plot so we asked for a new 10X20 to move to.  The garden committee gave us one that had been overrun by weeds so we tackled that problem first then built a large enclosure to keep rodents out.

Well, some rodents:  The %#@&ing gophers got in.

Though we successfully harvest several crops, we also lost a lot to the gophers and despite traps, sonic stakes, and digging a 3ft deep trench to encircle the plot with buried chicken wire, never got rid of the little bastards.

So the committee offered to let us move into another 10X20 enclosure, one where the gardeners started with sincere intent but due to schedule problems allowed it to be overgrown.

(Since it’s close to the main gate, I think the committee didn’t want an eyesore to where everybody could see it and knowing we’d make a go of it agreed to let us have it.)

I will give credit to the previous gardeners for coming in and clearing out the enclosure as they promised, sparing Soon-ok and me a lot of work.

We’re clearing out our old enclosure, moving some of our trellises, gardening stakes, and watering timer over, and will get started on serious planting around the end of January.

I’m going to redesign out irrigation system based on what we’ve learned from our first 2 plots.  That for me is one of the most fun things to do as a gardener; I call it “playing with my train set.”

Stay tuned for further developments.

© Buzz Dixon