In My Little Organic Garden the water table is about 2 inches above ground level. In some places standing water was 6 inches or more deep. It did not affect the garden boxes however which are all a minimum of 8 inches deep. This is another blessing of raised beds in flat high clay soils like I have.

OK, back to planning next year’s garden…

One thing I like is that even though this book teaches how to get the most out of small plot it does not advise to crowd plants as much as some other small space garden books do. Most plants need their space and the authors understand this. They point out that one well tended plant with sufficient space can yield far more than 5 crowded plants will.

As it is now January, the catelogs are rolling in and it is time to start planning for the spring garden this book will come in very handy for the planning process.

Next post we will chat some about that planning process and some early garden projects. It is only a month before pea planting time!! I can feel spring knocking on the door already!

I know that blogs live or die based on activity. I know bloggers owe their readers regular content and I will bear that in mind. I am dedicated to adding something here of value to you not less than once a week and more often if possible.

By the way, my experiment with a winter garden has been mixed. Onions are set out for harvest next year. I have lettuce, swiss chard, and kale growing reasonably well. My biggest challenge is getting water to the garden when the spigots are wrapped for freezing and the hoses are put up for the winter. The dry fall we have had here in the valley – very unusual, clear, cold and dry weather for most of November and December, has made that challenging. My other big challenge is that it is dark when I go to work in the morning and dark when I get back at night. I only get to actually see my garden on weekends. I am already thinking next year I will put the garden to bed in October and forego trying to raise a few greens for the winter.

OK, see you all soon…

Thus, Garden Shed II was born, in concept. A few years back my wife saw a photo of an unpainted, weather beaten shed with red wooden windows and thought it would look excellent in our back yard. I agreed. Now the basic design was decided.

For many years I have wanted to build something using post and beam construction – the old fashioned method of joining beams and posts using mortise and tenon and wooden pegs. Here was my chance. The frame of the new garden shed would be post and beam.

Late in the summer of 2010 I laid out concrete pier blocks, leveled them, laid out a foundation frame of pressure treated 2 x 4s and covered it with a ¾ sheet of plywood. At 4 x 8 feet, this is the footprint of the new garden shed. It will be simple but serviceable and also add some charm to the back yard. This is the plan. Fall quickly moved to winter, I covered the floor with a tarp and some blocks for the winter and waited for the sun to return.

And waited. And waited.

Finally, in July, the sun began to return and the walls went up. I used 8 foot long 4x4s to create the beams and the posts. Tenons were fashioned and mortises cut. All together with a bit of persuasion from a mallet. Holes drilled through these joints and hard wood dowels pounded into them to fix it tight.

The plate was nailed to the floor and the posts were screwed to the plate. Other than that there is not a single nail in the frame. It is all wood surrounding wood. The roof is more conventional – stick framed with plenty of screws and nails.

In the next post I will cover the finishing plans. As this is written the roof is done, the building is now water tight, more or less. The OSB siding needs to be wrapped and then the final siding will go on. I now race against time, shorter days, threats of rain, and the onset once again of winter. The plan is to have this completely done before October 1.

I am harvesting broccoli and tomatoes from the garden. The greens are gone but new ones coming up for fall. I plan a big fall planting next weekend for a big late fall garden this year and will be wintering over some. I will not let another wet spring slow me down this year – I will plan earlier! I must.

I have a ton to do indoors so I should not be complaining. I am also saving a fortune on irrigation! I have not watered the lawns or the garden for a week. But the veggies are not excited about this weather.

I have some small Broccoli crowns that I may need to harvest prematurely. They are not growing very fast. Tomatoes are staying green and blooms are not fruiting out. The plants are all growing, but this is not good weather to ripen fruit.

I know the sun will come, and I will be complaining it is too hot! Isn’t that the way we humans are? Worse yet I will be at the day job watching the glorious weather outside and wishing it had been that way on the weekend.

Here is wishing for the best. See you again soon here on My Little Organic Garden.

The fertilizer is formulated specially for the soil conditions and the climate West of the Cascades. Up until now I’ve only made small batches for my own use. I am going to start making larger batches and make it available for sale. I will post details of where you can buy it here soon. For further details also see the Or Fertilizer tab above.

Today I planted to globe artichokes and 11 more broccoli starts that will take up where the current 6 leave off. Over the next few days I will sow lettuce, spinach and other greens for the first early fall crops.

Also into the ground today two more starts – one pumpkin and one cucumber. It is a bit late even for starts, but the cool wet spring set me back a bit. I shall be ready next year – I have a large bed now with hoops set up over which I can suspend plastic to get an earlier start and will utilize my greenhouse more aggressively.

At the Farmer’s Market yesterday one farmer had a familiar sign on her booth: No farms, No food. How true. That is worth thinking about.

The other tasks for this week are to combat some weeds that have not rested and enjoy the sun just as much as my tomatoes do and to start on my garden shed.

This is a great time of year. No harvest just yet from my late garden, but lots of potential.

Happy Gardening to All.

However June was busy for me because I had a two week vacation including some travel during the last half of June. The first half was spent preparing for the second half.

In late June I spent a week in Belgium. I noticed the prevalence of vegetable gardens and chicken coops there. On the train from Brussels to Antwerp you pass one back yard after another, each with a few chickens, lots of vegetables and some with various types of green houses and cold frames. It was great to see.

Readers will remember that last year I continued my long history with Square Foot Gardening as featured in Matthew Bartholomew’s book of the same title. I’ve used that method on and off since 1989.

This last Christmas my wife bought me Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon. It is a great book. Solomon makes good arguments for why many mainstream US gardening methods do not work in the Pacific Northwest maritime climates. He also argues the advantages of his methods over Square Foot gardening and other forms of intense gardening.

So this year I am giving Solomon a try and have all but abandoned the Square Foot method for a season to see how it compares. I promise a full report.

OK, deep breath, I have planned to write here no less than once a week on Sunday so that my dear readers will not feel abandoned. Wish me luck. Once a week…