John M. Cropper

Last summer, I planted a small-plot garden in my Mom’s backyard which produced an amazing amount of food for such a small amount of space. We struggled to keep up with the tomatoes, the cucumbers, the peppers, the zucchini and the onions that grew unabated. We gave bags of produce away to friends, family and sometimes even strangers (that unassuming dog-walker picked a good night to pass the Cropper house), and still we had more. It being my first foray into the art of gardening, I learned by trial and error, and I took notes.

We may have had more than we could eat last summer, but still I couldn’t resist the lure of the vast expanse of useless sod, fencepost to fencepost, that lines the yards in Mom’s neighborhood.  So when I asked her this year if she would mind if we added another plot, I was happy to here her say: “Why not. The grass isn’t good for anything.”

So on Sunday I was able to hollow out a few hours in my evening (something increasingly difficult these days) to devote to garden preparations. I started the tedious task of flipping the sod in an 8′x3′ rectangle adjacent to last  year’s plot.

As you can see, the old plot was in pretty rough shape after a long winter of neglect. So when the sod was freshly flipped, I pulled up three grocery bags full of weeds, raked some of the hay that I used for a cover crop into the soil, and added some compost that was left over from last fall.

About a week later, after the flipped grass had had enough time to decompose, I bought the necessary lumber to build a raised-bed, as well as some peat moss, some composted manure, a bag of vermiculite and some standard top soil. I also bought a few broccoli starts, so I have something to look at in the garden while I wait for seeds to sprout and the tomato and pepper weather to come.

I’ll probably plant some direct seeds this week. I’ll start with onions, carrots, lettuce, spinach and cabbage. I need to sit down and map out the garden in earnest, so I make the most of the small space I  have (no more watermelon or pumpkin this year— they take up too much space and aren’t productive enough.)

This time of year, garden updates tend to dominate my posts so I apologize in advance while I turn into a middle aged woman. It’s that time of year.