Hello from the Canadian Maritimes!

[Lazy Gardener]

I agree with the Lasagna Gardening book suggestion. I think square foot gardening is a waste of space.

The Market Gardener is my favorite gardening book ever. It discusses intensive planting. The garden is in Canada, but I think it's in a colder area than you are in? Internet says Nova Scotia is zone 5 - 7. I'm in Wisconsin, right between zones 3-4.

The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming: Severine Von Tscharner Fleming, Jean-Martin Fortier, Marie Bilodeau: 8601400881958: Books

The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming [Severine Von Tscharner Fleming, Jean-Martin Fortier, Marie Bilodeau] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming

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Re: sq. foot gardening: One thing I've noticed: all of the pics show YOUNG plants. They don't ever show plants in full sprawl/mature mode. IMO, What can be gleaned from sq. foot gardening method: the concept of intensive planting and successive planting. I would not go through all of the theatrics of sq. foot gardening: placing individual seeds into carefully mapped out squares. But... I can agree with the concept... kind of... Except that plants require much more room than Sq. ft. gardening indicates.

 

[Swampduck]

I live on a glacial till too. Although there are fewer rocks they're all big and usually need to be removed with the help of a jackhammer. Which is why I mainly use raised beds.

 

[Hinotori]

Yup. I have a couple san angelo bars which work amazing to pop boulders out of the ground that we have no chance of actually lifting physically, and normally people use heavy equipment to get out. I use it to lever them onto a pallet then drag it out with my truck. I can only do this in summer after the soil has fully dried.

A 6 foot bar I got recently and an 8 foot bar that's almost 2 inches thick. That one was grandpa's that he bought back in the 20s or 30s. It's very heavy but they just work amazingly well. I use another rock or a piece (or several) of lumber as fulcrum.

I have to get soil to fill the holes or it will be full of water most of the year.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Bad thing about rocky soil: every winter the frost heaves a new crop out of the ground. I've been working my garden for years, and every year, I lever more rocks out of the ground. Many of them are the size of 1/2 of a laundry basket. I use an iron bar, long handled spade, and 2 x 4's. I get a bit of the rock lifted up, back fill with smaller rocks, lift again, back fill... Rinse and repeat till the rock is high enough in the hole to be able to lever it out of the hole. Then, I can pull out the back fill rocks, and fill the hole with soil.

 

[CrealCritter]

Welcome fellow fermenter

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hi, and welcome from Texas!

 

[baymule]

Welcome from Texas! You have quite an impressive gardening resume! Good for you. Nothing beats home grown food. Canning, freezing, fermenting and dehydrating extends the “eating season” LOL I once gardened in beds, 4 feet wide and 6 to 12 feet long. We ate good out of that garden.

 

[Swampduck]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will definitely look into some of these things.

 

[CrealCritter]

My thoughts when it comes to gardens. If you can't run with the big dogs, then stay on the porch. Otherwise go BIG or go home.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

My thoughts when it comes to gardens. If you can't run with the big dogs, then stay on the porch. Otherwise go BIG or go home.

That opinion is valid if you have the space, land, and equipment. A large garden can produce tons of food. On the flip side, that would negate the bounty that can be grown on a postage stamp. Case in point: I have more salad greens growing on a single shelf, under 4' shop lights, in my office than hubby and I can keep up with. (4' x 18") will provide an impressive amount of food. I say, use what you have. And... even if it's just a couple large pots or window boxes on a back deck... something is better than nothing.

Sometimes, less is more. I'm keeping the same size fenced foot print in my garden. But cutting back on the sq. ft. of veggie plantings in favor of turning a good portion of it into chicken/duck coop with rotating paddocks/green manure planting. Will be making up for a bit of that loss by planting ornamental veggies in flower beds, HK, and sheet composting areas.

A large garden that is poorly managed, perhaps because the size is overwhelming to the gardener, will not produce as much as a smaller, well managed garden. The smaller garden may be easier to harvest and process at peak nutrient levels.