The winter in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is long and snowy, but there's always time to start planning for spring - a time of growth and renewal. I hope to obtain some land next spring, so now is the time to begin planning.

There are a number of principles that I plan to use when growing our own produce.

Raised beds have a number of benefits including ease of access, defined boundaries/walkways, better drainage, easier to extend the growing season... the list goes on. Of course, they're also more attractive than regular garden beds. If you don't make the beds too large, then you can reach everything you have for easy maintenance.
Hugelkultur is a method of making garden beds that are based on the concept of rotting vegetative matter holding onto moisture and fertilizing your plants. Combined with a raised bed, it's a great way to improve your garden production for very little additional effort or cost. Often, it actively reduces both labor and cost.
Companion planting is a way of intercropping to be mutually beneficial to your plants - or at least to not hinder them! By pairing the correct vegetables, herbs and flowers, you can enhance growth, hinder pests and make your gardening experience more pleasant all around.
Square foot gardening is a concept perfectly suited to raised beds and companion planting. Rather than making rows of seeds, you do squares. It helps you to make better use of a smaller amount of space. When planning, there are online guides to tell you how many seeds or plants should be planted in each square foot.

I played with some of these concepts last season....

Raised Beds - two different methods

While living in Wisconsin, I began with cheap totes from our local big box store. I fill them about two-thirds full with scrap cardboard (that was too bad to recycle), sticks, scrap vegetables, guinea pig bedding, anything that would rot well. After that, I added compost soil to fill the tote. Then (having put drainage holes low on the sides), I planted them... Here's a lady who inspired me.

When I lived in Wyoming, I also tried the following method - which I plan to do in the future when I don't need my beds to be able to be moved. This is so cheap to make! My only negative part is that the cinder blocks create little hot and dry microclimates - fine in a cooler, damper climate, but I had some trouble with it in Wyoming, which is arid, especially in the summer.

Anyway, last year, I did the tote method with the hugelkultur way of filling them... Then, I used companion planting to plan each individual container to benefit all members. One of my pairings was rhubarb, strawberries, mint and chives.

I was at a slight disadvantage because my gardening space was semi-shaded, only getting direct sun for a couple of hours each morning.

At the same time, the apartments where we lived designed their own growing boxes to take advantage of the full sun side of the building, done with typical planting soil... Their plants grew slowly and sickly... while mine thrived.

(Here, we have a tote with celery (left), peas (right) with mint and lemon balm. In the background, you can see the pot with the rhubarb and strawberries. )

This year, armed with the most excellent of seed catalogs, I have begun planning my beds... a process I'll share with you next time.

Photo taken in Jun 2022 with our Kodak AZ401.

Past issues...

Poultry

Chickens - A Little About Our Breeds
Chick Update and the new Warming Plate
Chickens Grow Quickly
Building our Chicken Tractor
Reinforcing our Chicken Tractor
The Circle of Life

Homesteading in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Gardening in Wyoming

Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
(Buy my work at RedBubble, TeePublic, PicFair and DeviantArt.)
verified author on Goodreads
(Buy my books at Books2Read and at LBRY)