Did you realize a 4′ x 4′ garden bed can grow enough salad veggies to feed one person all season long? Check out Rodale Press’s book, Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew. It’s full of good how-to information on crop rotation, vertical crops, soil improvement — all geared towards gardening in small spaces.
I was fortunate to meet Pam Stidham who has been making her beds for several years. Pam runs the Hidden Valley B&B in Warm Springs, Virginia. My visit there was to see her hummingbirds. With several feeders all around, Pam says she goes through a 10lb bag of sugar a week! I got to see the hummers before they all migrated. She said the birds started to leave about 2 weeks ago.
An unexpected surprise and delight was learning that Pam is a true gardener. Pam says this raised bed garden was built 15 years ago. They add some manure and new soil to the beds each spring and then let nature take its course. She has a wonderful collection of perennials, herbs, vegetables and a sweet fish pond in a various raised beds by her side porch. They have another raised bed garden just for herbs.
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