Greetings All,

Just wanted to introduce myself and meet the gang. I'm starting a
garden this year on the west side of my 2 acre property. I've looked
at all of the conventional methods of earth gardening and have
determined that my garden sight needs a lot of work before I can plant.

Right now, it's under about 2 inches of water from the 3 inch rainfall

we had over the weekend. With this in mind, raised beds and good
drainage seems the only option and the time and expense involved with
having that ready for spring planting is a little bit of a problem.
I've ordered my seeds and built my seed starting rack but I'm now
thinking that maybe Hydroponics is the way to go this year and work on
the garden plot between now and the fall. Lots of compost material
with a two acre yard.

Since the plot that I am considering is covered with Bermuda grass, I
am considering raised beds in a 12" to 18" frame. The problem with
this is finding enough good garden soil and organic material to fill
the beds and still have time to get them planted. I bought a book on
lasagna gardening and think this is promising. The author says you can
plant in the beds as soon as they are built. I would love to hear from
anyone that have overcome similar problems and the methods they used.

Since I'm new to this group, your opinions would be invaluable in
determining
a proper course. I'll admit, Hydroponics is a complete paradigm shift
for me as I grew up in the cotton fields. I look forward to hearing
from you and hope that I can add something to the group.


Best Regards


Bob (Fiddler) Sawyer