Introducing: A Garden Emerges
 by Pam MitchellPam’s Place Produce is an amalgamation of a number of different garden sites on the South End of Whidbey Island, totaling an area of a half acre in raised beds, as well as three large polytunnels as season extenders, to grow vegetables year-round and sell them at the Bayview Farmers’ Market. Pam’s Place Plants provides vegetable starts for sale from spring until late summer to enable Islanders to grow some of their own vegetables, and both the produce and the plant starts are grown using organic techniques and supplies, ensuring safe and nutritious products for the local market. This blog will hopefully give the reader an experience of growing food commercially, which can be resized in a backyard garden to provide food for a family or single person year round as climate change makes it possible for us to keep plants alive through the winter months. |
 After 5 years of growing on a quarter acre of shared garden space in Clinton, I gave up my portion to the new owners of the property. They’ve shown great promise managing their quarter acre. I have now opened a new garden with about 30 boarded raised beds and rebar hoops in Bayview. I began by covering the entire grassed area with black plastic (scrounged from the dumpster at a local lumberyard) and secured it with landscape staples (purchased from a local nursery) that stayed on the surface until I removed the pieces, starting in October. |
 But just to make good use of the area this year, I planted over 100 squash and pumpkin plants through holes in the plastic in early June, and they created a jungle of foliage that engulfed the space and produced many fruits, which became visible as the greenery died back over the next month.
Stay tuned for the next installment when the plastic comes off and the construction begins…
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