Wednesday, February 18, 2009

some background....

a little about my garden plans. i moved to diamond springs in february 2005, after living in the nearby community of cameron park for 12 years. one thing i definitely wanted in the new house was a substantial increase in gardening space. the new house sat on just over 1/2 acre and allowed me to make a huge leap in gardening space. the soil i had in cameron park was the typical red clay, common in the foothills in this region. i had good success and grew quite a bit of veges, but space was at premium and i was always trying to cram too much into my space.

my new garden is probably 3-4 times the size of my previous, but with a couple issues. instead of the rich red clay soil i had in cameron park, my soil in diamond springs was a white, porous type i have never dealt with. a geologist friend told me it was from an ancient volcanic ash flow. well, i found out it wasnt too good for veges as my first year growing tomatoes (a test) found a rather anemic result - i found out i would have to severely amend the soil here to get any production. the next 3 summers found me amending the holes i planted the 'maters in - resulting in pretty good production.

BUT, my ultimate goal was to have raised beds and so this blog will chronicle my 'raised bed' experience in my garden, among other things. It's now 2009, 5 years after i moved to the new house - why did it take so long to get the garden to this state? well, i had to get the front yard landscaped, fence in, built a shed - all manner of other things to do before i could properly tackle my 'dream' garden which will most likely be the one i will have for the rest of my life.

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