New Community Garden Plot

14 years ago

I am getting my new community garden plot ready to grow. I am debating on how to set it up. At home I have three raised beds for vegetable gardening. They are 4by8, 4by10 and 4by10. The communtiy garden space is 16 by 16. My original thought was to divide it into 9 4 foot squares with 2 foot paths in between. The outside paths are not part of my 16 feet, so it woudl be 4ft(bed) +2ft(path)+4ft(bed)+2ft(path)+4ft (bed) = 16ft along each side. Did I lose you so far? I started thinking about whether to use the space as nine 4 foot squares or if I should use it as three 4 by 16 foot beds. I could plant more within the space because I would be eliminating some paths with the 4 by16 foot beds. I have beds similar to this at home already. Any advice with 4 foot squares versus longer 4 foot wide beds?

I plan to plant peas, potatoes, broccolli, tomoatoes, peppers beans and cukes at this space.

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Comments (2)

bsntech
14 years ago
I'd use the longer 4-foot wide beds as this maximizes space. The only downside would be having to walk all the way around the 16-foot bed instead of having walk-ways between four-foot areas.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog
namfon
14 years ago
I can think of 2 ( more ) things to consider.

Will you have any plots south of your's ( shading some of your area ? ) or visa versa, will your tall growing or trellised crops be shading other plots north of you ?

I would also make sure that this is a revolving Plot, in other words, will you get to use this same area in future seasons AND that they will NOT be plowing the whole Community Garden area both in spring and in fall ( before you have finished your harvests, for instance )
I know some people that had planted rasberries, horseradish, walking onions etc ... and added amendments only to find that coordinators had rented 'their' plot to another gardener the following year.