Our Garden This Year

Our garden through the summer...

This year we started our garden with corrugated boxes around the plants, except where we planted the beans, peas, and corn.  After securing the boxes we placed compost on top of it.  The boxes serve two purposes, one is to be a barrier for weeds and the second is it will break down to compost and be great for the soil.  We also found that it helped prevent some diseases for our tomatoes this year.

front right: celery, Chinese cabbage, peppers, towards the back rows of tomatoes.

On the right next to the fence is the snow peas.

The back row is pole beans

The section with no compost is our area we tried the 3 sister crops; Corn, Pole Beans, and Squash. 

The Pole Beans are to climb up the corn stalk next to it.  They provide enrichment's in the soil the other crop needs, and the squash below is to help prevent weeds.  WE found that we will never do this again.  IT was a MESS.  The beans grew to other stalks making it impossible to move through the stalks easily.  The beans drew Japanese Beetles to the corn.  The Squash never received enough sun and it definitely did not shield the weeds.

Broccoli and cabbage.  Next to the fence are cucumbers and zucchinis

Next to the fence, pole beans, broccoli and cabbage.

Cabbage

Broccoli and zucchini

Beans next to the fence, tomatoes near the front 

Cucumber plant

The 3 Sister Crops... what a mess.