How Does Your Garden Grow?

"For the best success, a vegetable garden should be well planned out in advance. The site location is of the utmost importance. A spot near the house in full sunlight is the normally the most convenient spot, however, drainage, soil quality, and shade from buildings or trees may mean the garden must be located in an area farther from the house. A good vegetable garden must have at least six hours of full sun each day in order for your food crops to mature properly. No amount of fertilizer, water, or care can replace needed sunshine. The soil should be very fertile and well draining so that water never puddles after a rain storm. While good air movement around a garden is important, windy areas should be avoided because winds can dry out or break plants. Choose a spot close to a water supply for convenience, and to avoid having to use long lengths of hoses. Planting a vegetable garden where it can be visited frequently will allow you to monitor plant pests and the general health of the garden more easily."

This is what The Garden Helper (www.thegardenhelper.com) advises to make sure the placement of your vegetable garden is perfect. Well, my garden is partly shady, has what feels to be miles of hose to make sure I can water every corner, is placed on a fairly steep hillside, shaded by several large trees, and has a clay base that is hard as a rock ledge, actually a rock ledge resides under the clay base; in other words, everything your garden is suppose to be for maximum production, mine is not. If I counted up all the ways my garden shouldn't grow I'd just lay down my hoe and cry. I certainly failed at planning the ultimate vegetable garden.

Three years after we moved and tilled up the plot that was to become my "new garden", I've expanded the fencing, continually added organic material to the soil, built a raised bed for the garlic, learned the pattern of the sun and the shading of the trees to maximize my planting potential, removed buckets of rocks and pebbles, done my best to discourage the weeds, and had good crops and bad, just like my old garden.

Here in New England, my garden planning starts at the end of the season. The plants have hopefully grown, blossomed, and produced some sort of vegetables. As the days shorten and the temperature drops I plant my garlic for the next year and put the rest of the garden to bed. Tools are oiled and stored away, garden gloves and hats are set to rest on closet shelves or in the garage area that serves as my "potting shed". The paths that delineated the tomatoes from the basil, the cucumbers from the squash, the corn from the over-grown weeds, rest under a blanket of whiteness temporarily leveling the planting grounds and making the fenced in garden area look pristine.

After the busy holiday season has passed and the days begin to lengthen a minute at a time, I continually make mental notes as to what grew well, what faltered, what tasted as good as it looked, and what looked better than it tasted. Then suddenly I realize now is the time to begin to plan again in earnest. How do I know this? Seed catalogs have begun to arrive in the mail. I've been perusing my two favorites: The Natural Gardening Company and Seeds of Change.

The Natural Gardening Company is the oldest certified organic nursery in the United States, and Seeds of Change also offers 100% certified organic seed. Both can be visited online (www.natural gardening.com; www.seedsofchange.com), but to me it is quite not the same as being able to flip through the catalogs.

Because I like to cook as much as I like to garden it is usually herbs and vegetables that I dream about the most. Last season I attempted to grow sweet corn, a dismal failure because of lack of a proper amount of sun, and broccoli rabe, also a failure I believe because of my dense soil, but my tomatoes did well, I'm still pulling from my cache of butternut squash, and the hot Italian peppers were a smashing success, as was the garlic.

So during my lunch break at work, or after dinner is done and the dishes put away, I pick up my seed catalogs and try to decide if I'm going to once again choose the Brandywine for a beefsteak tomato or if I want to try the Big Boy. I read about tomato trusses and lever loops. I worry over what variety of marigolds I'll place in between them to keep away the bugs and I promise myself I'll stake them better so the heavy boughs don't end up on the ground.

I dig for secrets in the description of sweet corn looking for the answer to last year's failed crop. I remind myself to get building that worm farm to be fed with my kitchen scraps, dryer dust, and toilet paper rolls. Hopefully those red wrigglers will help break up the clay I'm trying to grow on. I wonder if the cucumbers should go next to the squash or should I leave them on the opposite side of the green beans? Do I really want to grow chard or sow some chervil in the herbal area?

Maybe the ultimate way to count on having a productive garden is to just keep at it, to go with the imperfections and learn from your mistakes. So dream away, leaf through the pages of your favorite seed catalogs, exchange tips with your gardening friends, rotate your plots until you find the place your vegetables are happiest, and let it grow, let it grow, let it grow.