Peas, kale, potatoes, and beans, happily coexisting in one messy garden bed.
  • Goldy | The Stranger
  • Peas, kale, potatoes, and beans, happily coexisting in one messy garden bed.

There can be something satisfying about orderly rows of lettuce or leeks symmetrically spreading across a neatly groomed garden bed. But it isn't at all necessary. My garden is usually an equal mix of order and chaos: carefully spaced rows of lettuce here, a mat of carrots there, a smattering of arugula, dill, and basil, sprouting up between and beneath the tomato plants.

And then there's my "garbage bed," a three-by-six foot raised bed that sits in partial shade outside the confines of my makeshift fence, and thus at the mercy of my dog. This spring all I did was yank out the biggest weeds by hand, turn the soil over with a shovel, and mix in a little bone meal (I can't use my usual organic fertilizer because my dog would dig it up looking for the source of that delicious smell). Then I scattered on some aging snap and snow pea seeds, sprinkled in some kale seeds I saved a couple seasons ago, and then topped with an inch of compost. A few weeks later a friend gave me some well-sprouted seed potatoes, so I dumped those in too. And once the soil warmed up I threw in some old bush bean seeds, plus a few Blue Lake Pole beans in the back along the fence.

The result has been a fabulously productive mess.

The kale, of course, took off, producing more tender leaves that I know what to do with—rather than picking leaves I've just gradually plucked whole plants, so as to relieve the over-crowding. The peas too produced a bountiful harvest, especially the handful of Oregon Giant snow peas that had been left over from a planting three years ago. Some of the potatoes also managed to force their way through to the sun, producing substantial foliage; you can see the soil bulging beneath them. And just as I'm preparing to yank out the peas, the bush beans are beginning to flower while the pole beans have started climbing up the twine I recently provided along the fence.

Of course, there are drawbacks. As the weather warms up, aphids and other pests prove more of a problem in this crowded bed than in the more orderly and airy parts of the garden. And I've no idea how I'm going to effectively harvest the potatoes without harming the kale and beans that surround them. But in terms of food out versus labor in, no other bed will prove more productive.

The point is, if you're not so hung up on the aesthetics, vegetable gardening really doesn't have to take up much time or effort at all.