Enthusiasm and animation weren’t lost on Tracy Keagle Thursday evening when she gave her views on how best to plant and enjoy a garden.
Five women and a single male were mesmerized, not only by what she said but also by the presentation, so entertaining and informative its 80 minutes flew by.
Promise made was that if her recommendations were followed, hard work to prep a garden spot would pay dividends later when hot, dry weather arrived. The principal task then would be harvesting, while others toiled to keep weeds in check and their gardens moist enough for plants to grow.
It’s no mystery, she said, and chuckled about experiences past when veteran gardeners watched her prepare a garden space and shook their heads incredulously.
Keagle’s secret? Preparing a deep and mellow bed for plants, one where their roots can course as far as they want without butting up against hardened soil.
Traditionally gardens are laid out in rows, usually about a foot wide with two feet between to give room for tilling. Potatoes, tomatoes and all other garden favorites are planted literally straight as a string and gardeners meander between the rows, cultivating, pulling weeds and plucking or poisoning insects that mean to dine wantonly.
Keagle’s approach might be described as haphazard. She describes it “as curvy and beautiful.”
The plan: She designs her garden — it can be small as a few feet on a side or mammoth — with growing space three or four feet wide and a foot between each. Just a patchwork of all she wishes to harvest later on.
Preparation of the garden bed — it resembles an elongated mattress — is where the hard work is done, with the better the preparation, the better the harvest. Keagle spades soil with a fork — those used to extract potatoes — and combines compost of leaves decayed over two years, preferably. Manure also is a vital part — she eschews commercial fertilizer in the same way she avoids poisoning pests — and letting the mix integrate over winter is good. The best manure? From chickens, or free-range cattle, Keagle said.
The walking area between beds comes from Keagle scooping topsoil from it and adding to the plant bed, where she never steps to keep the soil loose and conducive to growth. Once hardpan is reached in the foot-way areas where she treads, old newspapers are laid down in layers — with only black and white, no color — and topped with straw. That keeps weeds from taking root and further diverts rainfall to the plant beds.
The beds should be at least 18 inches deep, Keagle said, so roots are not cramped and can reach out and find natural nutrients required for robust growth. Plants, from seed or started in a greenhouse, also are spaced to give each ample room.
One last comment on plant beds. Keagle said personal comfort should dictate width. Also, make them as “long as you want to work.” The outcome is “you won’t spend a lot of time harvesting,” with everything easily at hand.
FOR A garden outside a home, rather in a wide-open space, it should be done with careful thought of where the sun shines. “A garden has to have at least six hours of sun a day,” Keagle stressed.
Other considerations are giving the garden a gentle southern slope and easy access to water. Kansas is notorious for dry weather when many gardens need water to finish off crops.
Accessibility also is a key, Keagle said. “The closer to home the better.”
