Have a large plot to grow on next year and need ideas on where to start!

[ParisApril]

My 70 year old neighbour owns a lot down the street from us that he doesn't use for anything except to store his boat for the winter. He hasn't been allowed to build on it because we live on a flood plain! The lot is 35'x85'.

Last weekend I approached him about about possibly selling the lot to us as we would like to have a bigger garden and our backyard is too shady to grow much of anything. They are not interested in selling he told me. Oh well at least I tried, right?

Anyway fast forward to yesterday. My neighbour came up to me as I was chopping wood. "We were thinking about it," he says. "We still don't want to sell it but we would be willing to let you use half the lot for a garden." They would still like to store to boat on the other half and because the enclosure is at the back of the lot that would give me an area of 17'x85' to grow on!

The only condition is we would have to mow and maintain the whole lot and if we ever decided to not have the garden we would have to make sure the lot was level and throw some grass seed back down.

So I am super excited! My DH has been promising me raised greenhouse beds in the backyard for a few years and I am still waiting afraid to grow too much to our yard because if he were to decide to start constructing back there a whole years work would rot.

Anyway can you tell I'm excited! I'm rambling on and on.

Where should I start with my new garden? I wouldn't want to do the whole thing the firast year that would be too much.

Ideas?

TIA.

[JamieCatheryn]

Does the lot flood in regular heavy storms, or just every few years? If it's a rare thing and not a concern you just need to kill the grass and till and amend the soil. Easiest to smother it with black plastic, newspaper, or cardboard, left on a few weeks. A big plot you might want to rent a motorized tiller for to loosen it. You can make a compost pile starting now to feed the soil, also can buy composted manure. And grass clippings, those are great for soil. Very important to feed it first if you want healthy plants. Is there a water source? You'll need to have that planned out, too.

Once the beds are ready you'll just plant when the time comes, water, and mulch thickly once the plants are up, and pick any weeds. Organic pesticides, repellents, fungicides can be a help, probably a good idea to use some to prevent issues, the all-in-one kinds are easy.

[Snapdragon]

The most work of a garden, in my experience, is preparing the beds. SO I would say start with a smallish area and get the soil super nice. Then, the planting part is easy and fun. Then do another section of soil prep, so on.

[ParisApril]

The lot doesn't flood every year. It hasn't flooded since the 70's. Fingers crossed it won't flood again for a very long time as we don't live very far uphill from there!

The only water source is going to be what I can bring there. We are in Zone 5 in Ontario. Summers we usually get a good amount of rain. I'm hoping to plant things that do not need to be watered or need much attention. I was thinking about.

Potatos
Sweet Potatos
Squash
Onions
Garlic
Carrots
Radishes
Lettuce
Spinach
Peas
Beans
Maybe Corn?
Celery (I love to cook with celery leaf.)

My tomatos and cucumber always die so I won't bother planting many of those.

I have a good source for compost. I don't think I will be able to mulch it that would be too expensive. I can just pull weeds.

If I plant raspberries there how many years will it take until they are producing lots of berries?

[JamieCatheryn]

Keep an eye out for cheap mulch, you can use shredded newspaper, straw, leaves, or grass clippings. It's not only to keep the weeds down, but also to keep the soil uniformly moist. Especially important if you do not water. I don't water either unless we hit a real drought, and this past year we mulched and the plants got through it fine, year before we didn't and things almost died.

Raspberry canes fruit the second year, so plant this spring and you'll have berries the year after that. Mark the canes that fruit with something tied on so you know which to cut off, they won't fruit again after that.

I think garlic gets planted in the fall? So you would need to prepare that bed right away to put those in so the roots start before winter. I think garlic and onions bother plants they grow next to, so you can give them a separate little bed.