I’m so excited about the new garden my boyfriend Chris has been building in the back yard for the past few weeks! I’ve created lots of little gardens in the past, but now I finally have a place equipped to grow all sorts of fresh vegetables! Chris and I make a great team- while he’s been busy bringing the above scene to life, I’ve been focused on planning what we’ll grow and buying seeds and starts. I decided to try the square foot gardening method, an approach that maximizes efficiency and productivity by planting many different crops in a small area. Here’s is the garden plan in its current state…
I say current state because this plan has already been through several revisions and it’s only about half-way planted! I’m sure more changes will come. The numbers next to the crop name indicate successive plantings as a means of extending the harvest season.
Here are some photos of the process as it evolved…
The new garden beds were created to replace the one that existed when I moved in, which was now rotting away in the middle of the yard. While Chris worked on building something new, I got to be a little destructive with something old : ) Grass seed has been planted in this space and I can’t wait to reclaim it as part of the lawn!
Bringing home the dirt!
As soon as the pretty new boxes were filled with dirt, I realized that rotting old shed stood out like a sore thumb- while also shading the garden too much in the evening…
…so I set about tearing that apart too! Before long I realized it would be a better job for the resident Destructor In Chief, so I brought in the big guns.
Believe it or not, I didn’t have a single camera with me on the day Chris built these beautiful trellises so the painstaking process he went through to build them will have to be left to the imagination : )
Maverick is absolutely thrilled with the new garden… so new many places to sharpen claws!
In the original garden plan, the potatoes were going to take up 8 square feet in the beds. Then I came across this plan for a build-as-they-grow potato bin. Potatoes produce more when dirt is added around the plants as they grow, so 2x6 boards will be added to the frame to hold the dirt in place. At harvest time, one side of the bins will be removed and the potatoes will spill out!
I learned quickly that planting goes much better with plot markers in place. Here we are running garden string to build the grid.
Once we realized we’d need somewhere to store the dirt that needed to go into the potato bins, Chris decided a dedicated soil bin was in order. At the last minute I suggested he add a second bin for compost.
“The bubble never lies!”
This is the current state of the garden… the next projects are lift-off hot houses for protection of tomatoes and peppers, followed by some way to keep out the hungry deer! Stay tuned for more!
