New Garden

 About 5 years ago, we planted apples trees at our cabin.  Here in Packwood we have hundreds of elk that call the Cowlitz River valley home.  A herd of 30 walk through our yard almost daily.  If you know anything about elk, they graze indiscriminately.  If they bite into something they don't like, they pull it up and leave it dead on the ground.  Pretty much nothing of the landscape or garden nature can survive if the elk can grab it.  So, when we planted the apples we added a 6 foot tall fence around the trees to keep the elk out.

Last year was the first year we got apples.  It was exciting to harvest.  Since there were just a few from each tree and each tree is a different kind, I opted to make apple sauce.  I got a dozen pints.  

When we decided to move here permanently, I knew we'd need to expand the "orchard" to make room for a garden.

Our property is in the river basin.  Our soils are sand and rock with little organic matter.  Very well draining, but completely dry in the summer. I added a lot of soil to the apple tree pits. The first year I had to water daily.  So, I knew raised beds were required.

We decided on a "comb" design that maximized garden space but allowed me to reach the middle areas from all sides.  We also wanted a flower bed across the front of the garden.  

First we moved the fence and made the area bigger.  Then Jeremy built the raised beds in the garden area.  To kill the ground cover, I added a layer of cardboard boxes.  Since we moved here, we had lots of moving boxes to use.  

Two days after we built the beds, it snowed - a lot.  The storm knocked out power to many in the region.  Friends of mine were without electricity for days.  Thankfully, we only had hours of outage and we have a wood burning stove to keep the cabin warm and to cook on (if needed).  But it was a good reminder that gardening at the base of Mt Rainier needs to wait until March.