Finaly got my garden in

Well it took me a long time, but I finally got my garden in. When my wife and I bought this house two and a half years ago we knew we wanted a garden, but the yard (and house) was such a mess it took us a long time to get to the garden. To give you an idea of how bad the yard was, here's a picture of a piece of the area that now has our garden.



If you look closely you can see a laundry post in there hiding out. I think when we bought the house we weren't even sure if there was one there because it was so covered with growth. We kept on hacking at the area though and last Septemberl we had the garden area down to this.



You can see how many trees there were, because they're in that pile of wood chips you see. (The pile has since become our compost pile.) A month later we cut down the tree that you see next to the laundry post (which is the same post you see in the first picture) and all the limbs wound up in the same spot. This spring we cleared out the branches (again) and put in some boxes.

I did three boxes for now (more to come in future years) two 4'x4' boxes for square foot gardening and an octagon that's about 5' wide for roses. First I made the boxes wider than necessary. Then I half buried them so that the wood underground should keep any roots from getting into (or out of) the garden. Finally I filled one box with Mel's mix (ran out of time to finish the others.) You can see the three steps laid out in this picture



Last of all we put in some seeds and plants. The onions are actually onions I put in the compost pile last fall because I thought they went bad. They sprouted this year, so they get another chance. The sticks mark the squares that haven't been planted yet.

WOW Kabaju42!!

What a BIG change! You have really been working! I love your gardens everything just looks so nice! Love the octagon too, roses are one of my favorites! Keep those pictures coming!

Yeah I wanted something different for the middle. The roses never did work out in the octagon, and now there's a bunch of random herbs in there. (Rosemary, lemon thyme, and a couple others). In retrospect I wish I had done something like 4x6 or 4x6 rectangles that run east to west.

Looking great Kabaju42! Keep those pics coming! Today is my first day being able to get out in the garden, so hopefully I will have some good 'before & after' pics to post soon as well.

Very nice work Kabaju42.  You've really transformed your outdoor space beautifully.  Please keep us posted.

Its so nice to see that you've begun gardening.  Early it seems.
Here is Maine we're still under 3 feet of snow except over the septic tank.  I can't even get to my compost pile.
Good luck with yours and enjoy.

Kabaju, Welcome to the Forum from California! You have done a lot of work and it is looking great. Please continue to share your journey.

It looks great and you have done the hard part.  Now enjoy some payback in the form of veggies and such.  Think, plan, and do not be disappointed.  My thing I have discovered over the year when ya stick stuff in the ground garden, trees, etc etc.  If half of them make it ya doing good.  Learning from your mistakes is a very good teacher.

if it were me I'd [url=#]check[/url] the stop sign by kneeling by it reaching for the middle and when I was as far as I could reach pole a hole in the soil with my finger.  Can ya reach the middle??  If yea ya can still square foot it.  If not sprinkle or plant is other flowers and ya still have an attractive bed.

more work??  take the octagon split it in 2.  put "backs" on them, split by 2' or the distance from ya knees to ya toes when kneeling.  replace them and now ya have 2 nice shaped planter beds.  Put string on nails to grid it out, there are a number of cool shapes that come to mind.  

Above all you are off to a grand start do not be discouraged and keep on trying.  Thats the fun part.  God bless and good luck.

Looks great, Kabaju!  Glad you've been able to clear out the wreckage from the last folks.

Cappy's got some good ideas on that octagon space...

Welcome Kabaju! Wow you have done some amazingly hard work! So glad you are now able to get to the fun part!

An amazing difference. Kabaju.  You certainly have done an enormous amount of work.

Looking forward to seeing how it develops. The journey is part of the fun.

oswaldwark wrote:an octagon that's about 5' wide for roses. First I made the boxes wider than necessary.????

Hi oswaldwark, come and say Hi! and introduce you self to us on the Welcome Mat.
Go to Home  at the top of this page on the green line then scroll down a couple of inches to the Welcome Mat.
Kelejan