Kim Iversen **Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links, which means we receive a small commission if you buy through the link on our website (at no additional cost to you). Using our affiliate links helps support our blog, which means we can provide you more content that you love.
A critical element in preparing the garden for planting is to take a close look at the garden and identify anything that needs to be repaired. Things to check out each year include:
- Fences
- Broken boards
- Garden paths
- Irrigation
- Trellises
- Hoses
Much like a rancher walks their fence to identify areas in need of repairs, we walk our fence as well. Or, more accurately, we crawl our fence since we are trying to keep out little critters like chipmunks and rabbits that like to eat tender young plants. Anywhere the fence has lifted (thank you to frost heaving!) we adjust the chicken wire we have attached to the inner side of the main fence, and lower it down. Occasionally we need to leverage bricks or other objects to block a gap we can’t fix by sinking the chicken wire. We use black plastic coated chicken wire which is less visible than regular chicken wire. It blocks the 4 inch openings along the lower portion of the primary fence we have around the pool and garden which serves to keep out the neighbors dogs as well as the numerous deer that travel through our yard.
After being in the house for 15 years, the boards around the raised gardens are in need of repair. This will be a fall project (hopefully) this year. We wanted to do it in the spring prior to planting, but with the astronomical cost of lumber, we decided to delay. When we built the beds 15 years ago we used pressure treated 2 x 12” boards. They’ve served us well and withstood a great deal of abuse through the years. Now we are trying to decide whether we will replace them with pressure treated wood, or use something like cedar instead since we don’t like the idea of the chemicals from the pressure treatment leaching into our food. Either way, this is a repair we can’t push off much longer as we now have soil falling out of gaps at the bottom of the beds.
While we are walking and crawling around the garden, we also take a look at the garden paths. Are there areas that need to be fixed? For us this means pulling up and re-laying any pavers that have heaved up over the winter. The last thing we want to happen while we are busy planting is to trip over a paver and fall and injure ourselves! Shifting a paver or two each year will work for a while, but we are now at the point where it makes more sense for us to pull up a large section and simply re-lay the pavers. One more project to complete this summer *sigh*. When we had gravel pathways we often needed to clean up the gravel that had migrated outside of the walkway and into the surrounding mulch. So no matter what materials you use in your walkway, there is always something to be adjusted.
We also like to get our trellises out and take a look at them – are there improvements that can be made? Anything needing repair? What do we need to replace? Other than simply needing more, we’ve been lucky so far and have not needed to make any repairs. I’m sure they are coming though…
Another important element that we check every year, as well as throughout the growing season, is our irrigation system. Everything from our hoses to the irrigation system itself gets a once over, and any necessary repairs or replacements are needed. We love the quick connect hose connectors, similar to these, as they make connecting the hose to the sprinkler or nozzle so much easier. That said, we have yet to find a system that can hold up year after year without leaking at the junction point. So each year we connect the hose to a nozzle, turn on the water and check the hose and the nozzle junction for leaks. Anything leaking gets replaced, as it’s far cheaper in the long run. If you’ve tried the quick connect systems and have found one that doesn’t leak after the first year, please let us know in the comments.
We also turn on our micro-sprinkler irrigation system to check for leaks, and for any heads that are not working. Typically if a head is not working it simply needs to be unscrewed and have any particle build up (i.e. dirt) blown out. Every once in a while we need to change an o-ring or repair a leak in the primary pipe. Nothing that takes very long, especially when we have the parts on hand. On the rare occasion we don’t have the right part, we add it to the list for the next trip to the hardware store.
By checking everything before we plant, we can get all the necessary repairs completed well in advance of planting the garden.
Waste Free Watering (or at Least Close to It!)
While we’re on the topic of water, let’s talk about watering the garden. When we first moved to the Suburban Farmhouse we were using a traditional lawn sprinkler similar to this one here. What we quickly learned was that we were often watering areas we didn’t need or even want to be watering, and thanks to the wind, not watering the areas that needed it in the garden. After trying a few other types of sprinklers, we gave up and started looking for an alternative.
I’ve used soaker hoses in the past, and often found them to work for awhile, and then get clogged with clay particles and stop. The promise with a soaker hose is that it is covered with millions of small holes through which the water can leak out, while maintaining enough pressure to get water to the end of the hose. This system works well for many gardeners, so I would encourage you to try it, but having not had much luck in the past we kept looking for an alternative to the traditional sprinkler.
For us the answer came in the form of a Mister Landscaper Micro Sprinkler system. This allowed us to control where we were watering, and set up a system that we could move as needed, as well as connect to a timer. Over time we’ve tried different heads on the sprinklers to fine tune the system, but I can honestly say that since trying this system I’m never going back to traditional lawn sprinklers or soaker hoses. In fact we ended up expanding the system into our herb garden as well. Now all we have to do is connect the timer to the faucet up by the house, make sure the program and system are working, and turn on the water. When we’re in a period of lots of rain, like we are now, we simply turn off the main faucet. Otherwise it stays on and the timer turns the system on and off as programmed.
We also hand water the garden at times. Particularly when we are sowing seeds and transplanting the young plants. Every once in a while we will also do supplemental watering during the peak of the summer. All of this is handled with the use of watering cans. We have two that we love. Both of them have large openings for filling the two gallon tank. One is galvanized steel and has a watering flower on the end. The flower is great for spreading the water over large areas, and reduces the risk of flooding and hence uprooting or disturbing freshly sown seeds and young seedlings. The second one is plastic and if it ever had a watering flower it’s long gone. This one we use to refill the steel can early in the season, and later on for watering the mature plants in pots throughout the herb garden.
Both cans are filled using the water we collect in our rain barrels. We have four barrels strategically located around the yard, and use three of them regularly. The two barrels closest to the garden are connected so they form one big reservoir. While it has happened, it’s rare that we manage to completely empty the barrels before the next rain comes.
-Kim
Galvanized steel watering can: https://amzn.to/3rlF497
Plastic watering can: https://amzn.to/3y6L1cF
