March Issue Front Cover
Have you seen the March issue of Sunset magazine? I had a few moments to relax last night and picked up this latest issue to sooth my mind with their pretty pictures and interesting articles. I discovered a short but nice article that starts on page 49 titled, “Your best ever Veggie Garden”.
They go on to show you their raised bed design for a mixed veggie and flower garden using medium sized rocks to form the garden border and contain the good garden soil. The photos in the article show the garden in March before the seedlings were planted and again in full production in August. Their design creates an artistic yet still productive vegetable garden (with some flowers for beauty and to attract the bees), that would be very appropriate for a small space like the corner of a backyard. I like that they are showing an artistic raised bed design and also promoting how productive a small garden can be.
I use raised beds for my veggie gardens too. Only mine are more utilitarian and functional rather than aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Around my home here in the mountains, the Sunset designed raised bed made out of rocks placed on the ground would not work to keep the gophers out of my garden. They would just tunnel underneath or scramble over the top of the rocks to get to the goodies within. I have actually seen a pumpkin plant disappear before my eyes as a gopher pulled it down into the earth! Whoosh! There it goes. Straight down into the ground. In an instant my baby pumpkin plant became a gopher snack. That was my first season gardening up here. Since then I have learned to plant in raised beds with ½ inch wire grid or doubled up 1 inch chicken wire underneath the whole bed frame.
Anyway, I really enjoy reading Sunset magazine and like their gardening and food ideas very much. I like to sit down and relax with the regular printed version of the magazine rather than just read the stories online. It seems more relaxing to me that way. It gets me in the spring planting mood to see their lush garden photos. They also have some nice recipes for spring veggies in this same issue.
Go check out the March issue. I think you’ll enjoy it too.
© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket
5 comments:
Good posting Farmer Jen and the references to the Sunset magazine links were great.
I was pretty lucky last year avoiding the pesky gophers. The deer,however, though beautiful creatures, became my adversaries when they starting nibbling on my prized tomato and chili plants just as they were ready to be harvested.
Just like the birds and my fruit trees, they somehow know exactly when to arrive.
There is one very well fed doe that I am keeping my eye out for now that my tulips are poking out of the ground.
Well, now...first of all, I would really like to sit on that beach featured on the cover of this issue! Wow!!
I'm with you, the pictures in Sunset magazine are always so soothing to look at. The before and after photos of that garden are awesome. For my garden, I still have not decided yet how to proceed. I will definitely plant something (right now, I'm set on tomatoes, peas, zucchini, and sunflowers - short list, I know!), but it's a raised garden plot already, although not a raised bed, if that makes sense. There are stone steps leading up to a raised garden area, then a few more steps leading up to another garden area. I'll take a picture some time if I'm not making sense. Anyway, the space is already so clearly defined, it wouldn't make much sense for me to additionally do a raised bed. Though I do see the sense in it from the terms of keeping gophers/moles out! Anyway, my sole focus is on chickies right now, so the garden plans will have to wait yet another week. :-)
Hi Bob,
Yes you were fortunate to not have as many gopher challenges in your garden as I have had over the years. Your deer just want to share your abundant harvest, but do protect those tulips we planted, they are one of my favorite flowers.
Hi Danni,
Your garden plans sound great. Raised beds work well but are not the only way to garden. They just seemed to be the best choice for me here. Our soil needed amending with good compost and the raised bed helps keep the soil from eroding away as well as keeping the critters out.
I know you are focused on your new baby chickies, as well you should be. Have fun with those cute fuzzy babies! It's been awhile since I have had new chicks, but I still remember how cute they are.
So I just had to tell you....
In our family, it's a tradition for the birthday person to have a "birthday table" upon waking up on their birthday. (did I say the word "birthday" enough in that last sentence, I'm not sure...)
The tradition is decades-old and, of course, I received mine on Wednesday. There were wrapped presents, flowers in a vase, the traditional white "birthday" candle that one makes a wish on...all sorts of fun and lovely things.
Anyway...one of the "little somethings" on my table was this month's Sunset magazine that you had so prominently featured in your post. I laughed out loud when I saw it! :-)
p.s. your comment kind of sounded like you had a hard day yesterday?
Danni,
Your birthday table tradition sounds wonderful. How nurturing that is to do for your loved ones! I am glad you laughed at your Sunset magazine. It's almost like I got to be a part of your birthday. Thank you for telling me about that special traditon and the fun you had. And thank you so much for being so sweet and sensitive and recognizing that I had been having a difficult week.
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