Since I normally only post on 5 or 6 forums I missed finding this one for photos of our gardens.
A little more than 18 months ago I moved to a new place. The property is owned by my DD and is just over an acre. We have named the sections of the property as:
-front yard
-back yard
-vegetable yard (hopefully there will be a vegetable garden in that space
-bee yard (where the bee hive is located and the 'barn' which houses the riding mower and power tools for yard maintenance)
and then there is the 'back 40' which is just a huge field of nothing that was formerly a pig farm.
Here is the vegetable garden area when I first moved to the property. (I can picture the future garden in this space.) So far all that has been planted are 2 fig trees (Brown Turkey and Celeste), Confederate Jasmine across the back fence. Note: on the left you see a wooden table and some fence poles. The table came from Home Depot garden department, we have 3 of them (free !!) and two of the tables will be part of the vegetable garden area...eventually.
I had a vision and a plan. No matter what goes wrong whether it be money problems, health problems or the weather, I have not given up and am still moving forward with the plan. For the past several days, things have fallen into place (thank you, Universe!!) and I am able to report progress.
For the past year, I have slowly, very slowly been relocating raised beds, soil, and plants from my old garden to the new place. So many plants are sitting in pots I have a very respectable 'pot ghetto', each of the plants patiently waiting for a more permanent place.
This is one of the raised beds that I moved. It was emptied of soil, disassembled, transported to the new garden, reassemble and re-filled with soil. Whew, a lot of work for one bed. It later became the broccoli bed at the new garden.
This is my "mini-pergola garden bed". It looked good when it was new but it was quite a problem to move. The few people who have trucks failed to keep the appointment to move it intact, so I had to disassemble it, move it to the new garden and reassemble it. I managed to plant it with kale, mints, and lettuces but also managed to use the upper portion to store some excess lumber which caused it to sag terribly.
At the old place, I had built a raised bed to accommodate a Tung Oil tree that was growing in a pot. It had sent roots down into the soil so I constructed the box around it, raising the height of the soil.
Well, both the tree and the box had to be moved. Whew, work, work, work. The bed is now in the new garden (but the tree is still sitting in a very large pot waiting for a miracle.)
It is now the tomato bed.
Since the weather is very hot and humid I have been waking up extra early and getting out there to get a jump on the day. It's working! This week the garden looked like this at 6:30-6:45 in the morning:
In one day I sprinkled Preen and watered it in so it would actually work, rolled out the landscape fabric (professional grade guaranteed for 30 years), dragged the bags of mulch into place (I like the No Float cypress mulch from Home Depot; very affordable and sometimes the broken bags are 50% off:thumbsup: ) and opened each bag, spread the mulch around somewhat evenly, sprinkled again with Preen and watered it in. That's enough work for one day. (In the background of of the pictures you can see another of the Home Depot tables.
)
I got tired of sitting on a plastic milk crate (not weight-rated to accommodate my mass
) and purchased a little gift for myself - a rolling garden seat from Harbor Freight (yes it was on sale and I used a coupon!), then I added a patio umbrella for shade.
Now when I look out the kitchen door I see this, which is much closer to what I had pictured.
Not finished yet.
Still have a lot to do. Next week I will construct 4 small, square beds that will be the 'kitchen garden'.
Anyone who stops by to visit, and you are all invited, bring gloves and a willingness to work.
Edited to add:
Still making progess:
Skimmed off the weeds. Put down some building paper.
Here are the 3 new beds in place waiting to be filled:
Cardboard layers in the beds to prevent weeds from coming up from below.
I have been visiting both Lowe's and Home Depot to purchase the broken bags of soil and/or manure so I can fill the new beds.
