Garden Plans > 2014: Household Garden #2

About this Garden Plan
The second half of our household garden was shaped as a mandala garden when we first put it in, to maximize "edge" and thereby maximize planting space. (You can get significantly more plants in a garden with curves and indentations than a completely rectangular bed.) The internal paths in the four big gardens are rounder than depicted here, but rectangles were easier to draw than rounded edges. Also, all the open spaces really aren't--the mandala beds fit them better than my poor drawing skills indicate. Having 4 beds in the mandala garden makes rotation very easy. Every year, we just move the crops one garden over, giving a four year rotation which keeps the soil and plants happy, and the bad bugs and diseases confused. Most years I have peas around the outside of the cabbage bed, but this year the cabbage bed is smaller than the others, so I didn't want to take up extra space for peas, especially as we can grow those elsewhere whereas we don't have much room for the brassicas this season anywhere else. We may trellis the cucumbers, thereby increasing the number of beans we can grow around them. However, this will make the plan to plant winter-harvested corn salad amongst the cucumber vines trickier, so it might have to be moved, or possibly planted in amongst the beans.
Plan Type, Soil and Location
Garden Location:	Vancouver Island
Garden Size:	57' 11" x 60' 11"
Garden Type:	Home garden
Garden Layout:	Potager / Country garden
Sun or Shade:	Sunny
Garden Soil Type:	Good soil
Plan Notes

Garden Plan

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Plant List

Planting Times

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