The irony of life is I love to grow food and yet was placed on a feeding tube. I do not eat most of what I grow; my spouse, friends, chickens, ducks and goose get to devour most of the fresh vegetables and fruit I produce. The universe has a sick sense of humor, which I totally admire and relate to, but the food joke was an extreme dark one. It has been 9 years now, and I have adapted and accepted my new normal. For someone who was a picky eater her entire life, I totally regret it.
And the next irony of life was moving this gardener from Southern CA, where everything grows the minute you plant it, to throwing me into Central Oregon . . . college-level curricula in gardening. There is a lot to learn and experiment with living in the high desert. I have lived here for almost 5 years now and in no way can I claim, “I’ve got it!” What I have learned in my short amount of time here is there are many factors that create challenges for any gardener here: temperature, precipitation, elevation, soil types, hardiness zones and micro-climates.
My first year, I was told three important pieces of information from a very successful Central Oregon gardener: 1. Live in your new home for one year before deciding where to place your garden, paying close attention to sun placement throughout spring, summer and fall. 2. Water, water, water. 3. Do not plant any of your warm crops outside until all the snow is off Black Butte. I managed to abide by all three rules my first year with my garden and still experienced many failures. Thank goodness I am not a quitter and love a good experiment and challenge.
Now we are into our 5th year of living in Central Oregon and the universe slipped in a worldwide pandemic with a lot of uncertainties. No worries, I got this. I am a positive person and like to capitalize on what has been freely given to me, so why not attack the garden task in my little micro-climate of Central Oregon? Challenge accepted with a limited budget and more time than ever to experiment and adjust what has not worked in the past. I am not one for always following directions, so I decided to build a simple, cheap hoop house with a heater this year to break the rule of no planting before the snow melts on Black Butte. I sat down and started to plan my garden and what were some ideas I wanted to experiment with. I know everyone does it differently and some may even believe their way is the only way, but I come from the camp of, “I learn best by experimenting and sometimes even failing.” I also will take advice from old timers here who are free with their knowledge.
I am the queen of lists, so here is my 2020 plan on a budget:
1. Build short raised beds using all reclaimed wood from an old deck (free)
2. Fill each bed with a mixture of soil from a local company (Best in the West) and a mixture of soil freely shared on a local Facebook group, called Central Oregon Gardeners (this is a great source of information and knowledge (base of peat moss, 2 bags 3.8 cubic feet each, 66 liters of worm-gro, forest humus and kelp meal. Add around a cubic foot each of perlite and vermiculite. Top it all off with 5-7 pounds of DTE veggie garden blend and mix it all up pouring it onto a tarp).
3. Cover the beds with strawberries and raspberries with pvc pipe and bird netting to keep out wild birds and rabbits.
4. Mulch each bed with alfalfa.
5. Create a hoop house out of pvc pipe and plastic so I can start everything by seed this year and control the night temperatures with a heater if needed (using plastic from the hardware store for now to save money for experiment purposes only).
6. Cover all walkways with bark from getchipdrop.com (free but you need to be patient waiting for it) in order to control the weed issue.
7. Plan out all my companion plants and flowers for each bed (make adjustment where needed and there has been a lot. Not sure yet if this is the way to go).
8. Purchase seeds at the local farm store, Coastal or Wilco. In taking stock of my seeds, I realized I need a better way to organize them.
9. Experiment with square foot gardening with one bed (2nd Edition All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew). This grid-based method works well for small yards. You will get more produce in less space with less weeds from what I have been told.
10. Secure the entire garden to keep the chickens out.
11. Place a drip system throughout the garden (water, water, water).
12. Continuously plant seeds and grow all my vegetable and perennials from seeds.
13. Build a greenhouse on the property to extend my growing season.
This plan may be modified at any moment. Remember, it is an experiment and living in Central Oregon I anticipate some failures this year.