Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard

1. Re: grants for high tunnel. The only such program I’m aware of is the High Tunnel Initiative through the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and to my knowledge it is primarily for commercial operations–I’m not sure where your project would fall (somewhere between farm and backyard gardener), as I don’t know your timeline or business plan, but you could contact them for further details on the process. I don’t know that a field aimed primarily at personal food production will quality, but it’s worth asking.

2. Re: converting blueberry field to garden space. This is really quite a huge topic, and the answers depend on your interests and capabilities. Because this is the planning phase for your project, you should be thinking about things like in-ground (more space, but requiring plant removal and probably plowing) vs. raised beds (quicker into production and with many benefits, but requires building/acquiring the beds), how will irrigation be supplied (do you have a water hookup on-site? if not, how will you give supplemental watering?), what is the soil quality (almost certainly more acidic than is ideal for vegetable gardening, as that’s preferred by blueberries, so probably needed amendments), what are the light conditions for determining choice of crops, what is your tool situation, etc.

As always, with brand new gardens, I recommend starting as small as possible because it’s easy to get carried away and wind up with more than you can handle. You can always expand later on. But I can provide a few resources, from multiple perspectives, scales, and starting points, to get you pointed in the right direction:

UMaine Cooperative Extension Ask an Expert “How can I turn my backyard into a new vegetable garden?”

Michigan State Univ Extension “Prepping an old, neglected field for crop production”

Penn State Univ Extension “Sheet Mulching: Lawn to Garden in 3 Steps”

I also recommend making a “sunlight map,” where you basically note every hour during a growing season day which parts are in direct sunlight and which are shaded (leafy greens can get by with 4 hours direct sun, but fruiting crops will require 8+), as well as having the soil tested through the UMaine Analytical Soil Lab.

3. Re: deer. Deer are large, voracious, and persistent mammals, so it will be unsurprising to learn that a physical barrier (i.e., a fence) is really the only sure-fire way to keep them out. In our experience none of the products marketed for deterrence, or the truly ingenious ideas gardeners and homeowners have come up with over the years to deal with browsing deer, have shown much effectiveness in the long term. You can find anecdotal success stories for all manner of tactics, and we certainly can’t rule out any one approach entirely (especially when it’s novel to the situation and deer aren’t expecting it), but hungry animals almost always adapt and persevere. 

There is evidence to suggest that some deterrents can mitigate the feeding damage, but they wash off easily, must be reapplied frequently and thoroughly, and they tend to be most effective on the plants deer prefer least, anyway. The other thing you can do, moving forward, is to select deer resistant plants so as not to attract them to your yard, but this is more difficult if we’re talking about fruit and vegetables. Then, you’re back to fences. For expanded discussion of this issue, especially fence selection and construction, please see Professor Donna Coffin’s previous article in the Maine Home Garden News. Also read more in this great short resource from the UNH Extension.

Happy gardening.