Moved to an acreage a year and a half ago, and I was super sad that last year I didn’t get to have a veggie patch. Before that I’d had a small spot wherever we lived to grow some basic stuff. Time was instead spent with drilling a well, property clean up (so many fallen rotten trees…) and figuring out where the sun actually fell on things.
This year I have my veggie patch. On the weekend we did some soil amending, tilling, and electric fence up. I was ecstatic! I have many seedlings soon to be ready to hit the ground and a bunch to direct seed that probably should already be in the ground. But here I am realizing I have 800sqft of garden space and I am SO overwhelmed. I’ll get there but argh it’s so much!
by scarlettewing
32 Comments
You don’t have to plant out the entire space 🙂 just do what you can day by day and stagger plant. Gardening is supposed to be fun not overwhelming! Don’t overload yourself or rush.
Plant what you like and don’t worry too much. Of you really want to cover the whoke thing, pmant 10 pumpkins and they’ll rale care of all the empty space XD
Throw a few 4x4s on the ground to split it in to quadrants. It is very helpful to mentally split up the task.
I recommend planting in stages. For example, in my area stage one is peas, potatoes, greens, and garlic. Two is tomato transplants, beans, and cucumbers. Stage three is melons, squash, and pumpkins. It spreads the work out over two months instead of one weekend.
Congrats! You got the right things done first and your garden looks great this year. I can’t wait to see more photos as you grow.
We all struggle with maintenance, especially late in the season. No worries. Enjoy what it offers.
When I get like that I’ll plant something like a cover crop, or some easy flowers, to fill in the gaps so I don’t feel so pressured to fill everything with proper crops.
You’ll be glad for all that space if you get into crop rotation!
If it seems that way now…. wait till everything is ready to harvest all at the same time 😆 🤣 😂.
And congrats on starting your own garden.
An oversized garden on acreage is the geometry version of chicken math (if 4 hens are good, maybe we should get 20?). You’ll figure out how to fill it up before you know it, and then you’ll be extending the fence out to 1200 ft thinking you don’t have enough room for all the cool seeds in the catalog. Trust me, we lived it! Your set up looks amazing.
One patch at a time!
Friend’s 80 years old father moved into their guest room and eventually did their whole ten acres.
Over five years, as a retiree. Very slowly.
Put on a good podcast and don’t overthink it. It won’t be perfect, but imperfection is part of the process.
And take lots of photos. 💚
Be prepared for small critters getting into your garden and chowing down. Or, get a dog and a couple of barn cats.
Great start! That’s some fine soil work. I love the electric fence! You may want to add a 3’ anti-bunny lower chicken-wire fence.
Do better with less. Don’t get upset if you bought more than you can handle. Letting a few plantlings “go” or seed packs to save for next year is alright.
Mulch mulch mulch. So that weeds don’t get the best of you. Once weeds take over, it can be too overwhelming.
electric fence lol i have a feeling u have had some bad past experiences of some sort lol i admire the committment.
Space out your plants. You don’t need every single square foot growing something, but please do mulch the area! Bare soil is dead soil.
I kinda did the same this year. I was planting planting and planting. People told me you’re going to use a lot of water watering your plant, and you’re going to spend hours weeding. I was like “it’s cool. I can managed”. Now, my veggies are dying bey I don’t water them enough, and the never ending weeds are driving me crazy!!!!
I feel ya, I have 1,150sqft and it was such a harsh winter I’m still shell shocked. I’ve got 80 feet of potatoes planted but I’m falling behind. None of my onions are in. I just planted radishes today.
Start with only what you love! You’ve got the rest of your life to develop and learn!
It looks like you are doing great and making a lot of progress! I definitely know how you feel, though. I recently wrote a blog post about putting way too much pressure on myself to put in a garden that you may be interested in reading: https://open.substack.com/pub/morgantierney/p/good-enough-gardening?r=4zfli&utm_medium=ios
You sound quite blessed to me.
That is such an awesome garden space. I wish I had that much room!!
This looks amazing, all the best
Plant your rows far enough apart so that your rototiller fits between them.
Is that an electric fence ? If yes, how easy was it to set up ?
We accidentally have about 2,400 sq ft .. so I’m thinking pumpkins 🎃
You can sow cover crops, like facelia or crimson clower, which are bee friendly. Direct seed flowers in between the vegies in potager style, marigold, pot marigold, zinnia, nasturtums, cosmos, amaranth. They will attract beneficial bugs and give you lots of flowers to enjoiy and gift to others
Plan some space for perennial crops, berries are great as a hedge, and one bed for perenial herbs/vegies
You will also need some space for tools, composting and a place to sit down take a break and admire your work!
I always remind myself that it’s a marathon not a sprint, each day keep chunking away at it. 🙂
Ahh someone else that went the electric fencing route it looks like? Any tips? I just built mine and ordered a new plug in fence Energizer for it. I have got to stop the groundhogs. Your setup looks great.
just plant on one section then next year you can switch to the not planted section
I always over buy and/or start too many seeds and I’m almost maxed out of space with 5200sq ft.
I’ve started making raised beds this year to add more space 😂😂😂
It takes me a month to fully plant out my gardens because I plant too much. It’s ok to take your time getting stuff in. It will all grow eventually.
Just go ahead and put some seeds down ☺️ it’s ok. It’s an experiment and a journey. Don’t overthink the instructions or “rules”, consider them as guidelines. You will figure it out as you go.
..If I was near, I’d give you the tomatoes and other plants I have that need homes 😅
You could do a chaos garden. Get some bags of beans and/or sunflower bird seed and just fling it everywhere..