Tareq Amin's Organic Garden

Tareq Amin has a thoughtful expression and gentle smile that could charm a saltwater crocodile, and the elegance and warmth of the family’s new home feels like an extension of this positive energy

And we were happy to find that the gently sloping area that Tareq had already scouted, was well suited for an organic garden.

With well over six hours of direct sunlight each day, and a gentle slope for good drainage, this garden site could grow any edible variety - even heat-loving summer vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant - and would never become soggy during the rainier months of the year.

Plus, it was close to the kitchen. In fact, it’s just a short walk from the back door, past the swimming pool, and over to the next harvest of fresh organic produce. After all, a good organic garden site should be as convenient to the kitchen as possible. Who wants to hike a mile across the entire backyard just for some salad greens?

Tareq Amin's Organic Garden from Microfarm Organic Gardens on Vimeo.

 

Now, Tareq’s home may be new, but he’s been growing edible produce since he was a child, and he already had an expansive list of edible varieties that just had to find a place in his new garden. So we designed a raised bed layout with lots of garden area, and that could easily be expanded in the future. 

Tareq loved the Kitchen Garden raised bed design for the same reasons that seem to delight every owner ; the 18” height that makes gardening much more comfortable than lower raised bed designs, and the sturdy, all-cedar construction. Each one of the L-shaped raised beds in Tareq’s garden measure 3’ wide and 6’ long on the outer sides, and the square-shaped raised bed in the center measures 3’x 3’.

 

With a harmony of elegant proportion and pleasing lines, Tareq’s builder and landscape architect set the bar for visual appeal on his property very high. And since this raised bed design sits in a prominent area of the backyard - right behind the house, and beside the property line - we dressed it up with an elegant border of steel edging, and filled the area with white pea gravel that perfectly matches an existing pathway.

As always, our Kitchen Garden raised beds are filled with a premium organic soil and amendment blend that will never become compacted over time or have to be replaced. In the course of a year, the soil will settle a few inches, and a few bags of organic soil and a scoop or two of fertilizer between seasonal plantings are all that’s needed to keep the garden beds topped off with fertile soil, and the garden thriving.

And because this garden site has so much direct sunlight exposure, drip irrigation was essential. So we fitted the raised beds with 1/2” drip irrigation tubing that has clog-free emitters spaced 12” apart, that each deliver about a gallon of water per hour. The irrigation system is joined neatly underground between all of the garden beds, and connected to the property’s existing irrigation system. 

Five raised beds is a generous amount of garden, but Tareq is a vegetarian, and we know that the Amin family uses a LOT of fresh produce. So it was no surprise when we got the call to extend the back of the garden to add two more 3’x6’ raised beds.

We were more than happy to add those two new garden beds and extend the edging and gravel a little further - after all, that’s what we’re here for. And even though the new, larger garden has enough room to grow just about anything, we know how much Tareq loves gardening. And when the time comes to extend the garden just a little bit further, we’ll be ready.