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| Amateur Vegetable Gardening... | ...in the Bulkley Valley Part II | ||
| by Sara-Jane Brocklehurst |
| Chris Monon speaks with enthusiasm and inspiration. This is his first garden and looking at the bountiful beds of vegetables, he did something right. "You have to take a look at this," he motions me over to the potato bed. "This book I read told me to lay down this black plastic and then the potatoes will grow between the dirt and the plastic and then you don't have to dig them up. Look ... puuurrrfect, I'm eating this one tonight!" This is just one of the many tricks that Chris picked up from his research. |
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This is a man who does things very thoroughly. Using the bed that was in place from previous owners, Chris has built raised boxes on top, dug down to the original soil and added new soil. Then inspiration hit. Using a simple approach, Chris has hooked up a watering system that would be envied by anyone. At the end of each box he has drilled a hole where drip-system hoses are connected and the hoses then are laid down on the soil of each box. Each length of hose has it's own volume control and with a timer on the wall of the house, nothing could be easier.Chris followed the suggestion in his book and went vertical in effort to make the most efficient use of space. Everything that could be encouraged to grow upwards, went that way; peas, beans, tomatoes, zucchini etc... He had no concept of how tall things were going to be, however, and found out some support mechanisms were too short. Lessons to be learned for next year. |
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At the end of one box, Chris has constructed a single layer greenhouse for his much loved peppers. Considering the cool weather and lack of sun, these have been doing fairly well. He even attempted to keep in the heat in by putting in
black painted rocks to absorb the sun's heat during the day and to release it at night. Unfortunately, with just a single layer of plastic, success in retaining daytime heat is limited.
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