How Will My Garden Grow?

Last year's garden produced some yummy stuff, but the early heat killed off my cold-weather veggies.  Then the mid-July "help" from my neighbor--bless his heart--resulted in most of the remaining stuff rotting out in the middle of drought.

This year I've decided to do away completely with neat rows and divided patches.  I'm going to try for a "wild" garden that's low-maintenance, seemingly overgrown, and sustainable.

The theory behind it is based less on successful gardening methods and more on natural growing conditions.  Nature doesn't like bare soil.  What we call weeds are nature's easiest means of soil enrichment and erosion control.  (Thistles are a great example.)  If the soil is good, and things are growing well in it, weeds aren't needed.

By mixing crops and staggering planting times, using a combination of seeds and seedlings, little bare soil should be exposed to sunlight for long.  Once an early crop like cabbage is harvested, a later crop like melons should already be encroaching on that space.  Broccoli should give way to okra, and lettuce to tomatoes.  Near the end of summer, the opposite should occur--peppers dying back for spinach, summer squash making way for winter squash.  Radishes, small onions, carrots and new seedlings will fill in the blanks as they open.

Throughout the growing season, some plants are allowed to go to seed.  Not only does this encourage pollinating insects to frequent the garden, it permits the soil to choose what it can best sustain.

Though it'll look messy and wild, the idea is to produce usable food with minimal work and intervention.  it's about creating a sustainable ecosystem that needs little human intervention to regulate itself.

That's the theory.  We shall see how it works.