My vegetable garden is a large rectangle running east–west along the northern boundary of our property. Over the years, the open field north of our fence has grown up into a wooded area. In mid-summer, even though the woods is north of the garden, it casts quite a bit of shade. The garden once got 14 hours of sunlight a day but now gets only 6 hours, not enough for good vegetable production.
After considering several plans for moving the garden to a sunnier spot, I decided to rotate it 90° so that the rectangle runs north-south. It will be exactly the same size, so it seemed at first a simple matter of lifting about 2/3 of the fence and changing the shape. Well, the fence doesn’t come out so easy. I don’t’ know why we thought we needed rebar posts with anchor plates to support a chicken wire fence.
While my husband struggled with moving the fence, I laid down large pieces of cardboard from every appliance we had ever bought over the grassy area which is to become garden. Over the cardboard I spread a thick layer of straw. The cardboard will kill the grass underneath and in spring the whole area will be tilled. Meanwhile, I am tossing items which would normally go in the compost into the new garden so they can compost in place and improve the soil. After I rake in fall I will shred the leaves and spread them over the straw to add even more organic matter.
The part of the old garden which will become lawn next spring holds three raised beds. The boards holding the soil in place will be moved to the new area this fall, but some of the plants inside them will have to wait until spring. There is a yucca plant, the herb lovage, some pretty Asiatic lilies, strawberries and a small blueberry bush.
I will move the soil from the old raised beds to the new ones and with the soil will come seeds of flax and calendula which will germinate next spring. There are wood chips surrounding the raised beds, so those will be raked up and moved to the new pathways.
On the west edge of my current garden are peonies, raspberries and rhubarb. After the move, these three will be orphaned in the middle of the grass. The rhubarb can be moved in early spring just before it starts to grow. June-bearing raspberries are biennial plants, so the ones growing now will produce next year. The producing plants will stay where they are next summer, but any new plants will be moved to their new location as soon as they sprout up. After raspberry season, the old plants will be cut down and then that area can be planted in grass. Peonies should be transplanted in September so they will stay where they are until next fall.
Moving my garden is a year-long project but eight additional hours of sunlight will be the reward!
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