Greetings from the Garden: location, location, location!

ROYAL CITY — You often hear people say that the most important thing when building something is the location. This is true when starting your garden. Vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and zucchini need full sun, lettuce and spinach do well with part sun. And having water readily available is essential. Although I found out that this may not be all that is required.

When I put my garden in many years ago I thought I had all of the requirements. My garden would be located in a sunny corner of our yard. I’d sketched a detailed plan on paper that included the size of the garden, where the water would be located and the vegetable arrangement for that first season. My husband had rototilled the soil and added manure.

Finally the Saturday had come. My boys were spending the weekend with their grandfather so I had the entire day to work on my garden. With coffee cup in hand I headed out on a beautiful sunny morning. The birds were singing as I spent hours raking and leveling the soil, hoeing in irrigation rows and planting. I precisely placed seed after seed of beets, beans, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, red potatoes and zucchini. Then came the miniature plants of tomatoes and peppers, and rows of tiny Walla Walla sweet onions lined up like little green soldiers. The day rushed by as my garden started to take shape. Finally, exhausted and exhilarated, my garden was finished!

Relaxing for a moment I sat down in a lawn chair to reflect on the days’ progress. As I sat there the giant irrigation circle came crawling to the end of the field next to my garden. I watched it as it crept closer and closer to me. I felt the fine mist of water from the sprinklers as it floated over the small dirt road that separated my garden from the field. And then with a quiet “click” the circle stopped and started back the other direction. Content and with a smile I headed for the house. When I got upstairs I couldn’t resist taking one more look at my garden from the deck before preparing dinner.

And that is when I saw it: there was a flood of water rushing over the small road headed straight for my garden! I screamed and rushed down the stairs and out the door. When I reached the garden the water was beginning to topple my perfect rows of Walla Walla sweet onions. I grabbed a hoe and tried diverting the water past my garden but it was hopeless as the water filled and flooded over my new ditch. The water was washing away the soil from my beans and beets. I sloshed through the mud and with hoe in hand I tried to enlarge the irrigation rows before the entire garden was washed away! Mud and water covered my legs and splashed up on my arms and face as I worked feverishly trying to save my garden.

Finally the water began to lessen and I heard a familiar voice behind me say, “What are you doing?” Wiping mud from my face I turned to see my husband standing there, his eyes grew wide and he cleared his throat as he tried not to laugh at the sight of me. Filled with frustration I broke into a tear-filled rant of the day’s events. When I finally finished, he explained that the small overflow ditch had broken from the excessive circle water. Luckily he had gotten there right after the break and shut the water off or my entire garden would have been washed away.

The next day a larger ditch was made, and drains were put in to divert water in the future. And in the end only a small parts of the garden needed to be replanted. So as with many things in life, the most important thing about putting in your new garden is still location, location, location!