gardening – By Land or By Sea

So here we are, a few months after my first post about our garden transformation. We’re several steps closer to the garden of our (my) dreams, though we still have quite a bit of work left to do.

My husband has been diligently working, in between the ever-growing list of in-home renovations (does the incessant breaking of things/maintenance thereof ever end?) and the needs of family.

My two-year-old son “helping” dad break up some of the clay soil.

To date he has: torn down the small fence/grass border, pulled out the two sad fruit trees (we decided not to save them because of location/lack of actual fruit/the amount of pruning that needed to so be done), moved the enormous rosemary bush into a pot in the front yard, enlisted the help of his cousin with a tractor to dig up all the old plants/root systems that still remained, and contacted a local company about bricks to build our retaining wall-style raised bed. ALL while working full time and being an active father. Talk about a busy body!

On top of that, he has also planted a free-stone peach tree , and moved all the big stones from the back into my small Outlander-inspired standing stone fairy circle in the front lawn. Oh! And let’s not forget the PVC pipe grow light suspension rig he built for me inside our house (I’m seriously such a lucky wife, thanks babe).

Garlic scapes from the bulbs I planted last fall, in one of our old wooden beds we moved with us.

My contribution to the project has been to start seeds and buy more plants, plan the garden layout, and food preservation/meal plans for the coming harvest seasons, and to be helpful where I can be (which mostly involves child rearing and keeping the other parts of the household running).

We are making so much progress!

We still need to: purchase our bricks and build the raised bed, purchase soil, lay everything out, and plant, Plant, PLANT!

Happy snappy new buds on the apple tree in its “Forever Patch of Dirt”

When we first bought our house we were perhaps underwhelmed by the home itself, and instead we were enthralled with the two two-car garages (one for me, one for him), and the YARD. We’re definitely city dwellers now, but our house sits on a .19 acre lot, and considering the house is only 1,000 square feet, most of it is YARD.

There is a large green lawn and even an alcove for chickens, and a three-foot-wide border that runs across most of the fence line. Hello, veggie garden!!

The only problem is, it needs A LOT of TLC. The plants currently residing in the border bed are overgrown and not useful, so most of them will need to be evicted.

With exception of: the plum tree and the apple tree that are both in sincere need of pruning (and that’s an understatement; clearly they have never met a pair of clippers in their lives), and the grand Rosemary bush, that at one time lived in a terra cotta pot, but burst forth from its confines and rooted in the soil below.

The lemon balm bushes I will re-home into pots to better contain their spread. And, if I can convince my husband to allow me to train them, the black berry bushes will be trellised along the fence line. Other than that. ALL MUST GO.

Our plan is to remove the tiny (ancient and leaning) wooden fence that marks the boundary between bed and lawn, and replace it with a low cement block wall, essentially turning the whole thing into a raised bed.

It will be so much work, and it’s already January… Planting for winter crops begins in March, summer begins Mid-May… Wish us luck…

Tag: gardening

Gardening Transformation Part 2: The Next Steps…

The Great Garden Transformation…