It’s spring time on Needle Eye Mountain and that means it’s time to plant a garden. Now one would think with 188 acres it would be easy to find the perfect spot… but this mountain tamer still has a few things to learn.

I picked out a spot with good sun. On the down side of a small hill to help with drainage and conveniently near the chicken coop so I could keep an eye on it and have a short walk to water.

Last fall we found 5 old vegetable boxes in one of the old goat shacks we torn down last fall. We stored them in the barn for safe keeping and the got them out and cleaned up for our new garden.

Scott made me an awesome arbor so I could grow beans up the sides. We cleared the weeds away, added cow manure, mushroom compost, and garden soil and planted early spring vegetables.. broccoli, cabbage, snow peas, onions and Scott’s favorite…(insert eye roll here) Brussels Sprouts. Things were looking good. Really good!

Well… remember the mountain drainage advantage I thought I had … it was more like a mountain drainage ditch. Literally the plants were floating after the first big rain. I thought hmmm that doesn’t look good… but it dried out a bit and then boom another storm, more rain and even more rain. Needless to say the veggies did not appreciate that much rain…. The chickens on the other hand were thrilled with an all you can eat and scratch buffet right next to their house… yes not the brightest plan looking back on that… Let’s just say..Veggie garden 0, Chickens 1 + fat and happy.

So this weekend we performed operation move the vegetable garden.

We moved it up next to the house, bought more soil and compost and tried to reused what we could of the wet stuff… the worms… wow they loved the wet soil!

I really like the new spot… and bonus.. there is lots of room for expansion… insert another eye roll from Scott here….

So here’s to veggie garden 2.0 and no more soggy roots. Let’s see how well this location works. It’s got good drainage, good sun, and the beds are right by the hose. I’m determined to get at least one tomato this year… it might be a $200 tomato but oh will it be tasty!