There is something satisfying about breaking new soil for a garden. I am not sure if it is creating order out of the chaos of weeds, the anticipation of discovering what kind of success one might have growing plants, or it might be part of the fun of planning before the hardships of implementing the grand scheme. I have heard that one of the reasons a farmer plows a field is for the satisfaction of creating straight furrows. I have not been able to do that, but I find the challenge causing me to be persistent.
We broke the sod and flipped the soil over four weeks ago. This week we shaped some raised beds with the plow, rake and shovel. We are going to plant garlic in four beds this fall. The others will be ready for early spring planting; they should be drier than the surrounding field and we will be able to work them sooner. We have visions of strawberries on a couple beds and radishes along with leafy greens on another.
After shaping the beds, we spread lime and compost on the surface before covering it with a weed barrier. We planted garlic through a weed barrier last year and it worked out great. We cut an "X" every six inches and planted each clove through the cut. We had to assist a few garlic leaves through the hole, but a lot of the work stopped there and we did not have to weed. The initial investment of time was considerable; we had to make 600 cuts through heavy material, but we lifted the material during harvest and now can reuse it this fall and hopefully a few more seasons.
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