Having a small garden in my backyard has always been a source of comfort for me for some reason.  Maybe it's the thought of knowing that if I had to I could provide for myself.  This little garden space doesn't look like much right now, but in  a month or so  it will look completely different.  On the downside, this small garden is also a source of work that keeps me busy many hours each summer.  Even a small garden is not easy.

For now I am just getting it ready.  The soil here is mostly clay so it takes a good bit of work.  In this short spring we have had so far I have managed to cut down 5 ornamental grass plants and trimmed the grape vines.  In the center of the garden space below you'll see the remnants of this work.  I run all this through a chipper/shredder to break it down.  Before the garden is tilled up this will be spread over the garden area to be worked into the soil.

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Adding the organic waste back into the clay soil helps to loosen the clan and acts as a long term fertilizer as the organic material breaks down.  I've been doing this for several years and it seems to be helping a great deal. Our dogs think this is curious.  They will walk by sniffing the piles of chips and eventually raise a leg and make their own organic contribution.  

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On the left above you see the shredded grass plants and on the right the grape vines.  The chipper/shredder tends to leave the grass plants as a straw like material while it does a better job of chipping up the more woody grape vines.  For what I am doing here, ether is fine.  Everyone with a space over about a quarter of an acre could benefit from having a chipper/shredder, if nothing else for the free mulch.  One word of warning, commercial mulch is treated with fungicides and insecticides, so you shouldn't use this mulch around the foundation of your home or you could end up with a terrible insect problem.

When I was originally reading about how to build the soil up I read that adding sand would help loosen the clay.  As I continued reading I discovered that sand and clay in the right mixture has a common name, cement.  So I went with the organic buildup approach instead.

When planting, I don't adhere to the rules on the seed packets about how far away from each other to place the plants.  I don't have room to space everything out like they say the plants should be spaced.  The only problem it's ever caused is getting around between the plants to harvest.  I always plant tomatoes and last year from 8 plants we ate all we wanted fresh and preserved over 20 quarts by canning them.  

I tend to believe the recommendations for spacing the plants out are a bit too conservative.  Part of the reason for those conservative spacing guidelines is the availability of ground water for the plants.  Since my garden is so small, I can set up a sprinkler and make it rain any afternoon I want so water is not a big problem, unless we have a drought.