We spent two hours this morning working on the garden. Despite having our neighbor do most of the heavy work with his dozer, we still need to form paths, infill at the back and build up the actual planting beds.
This first pic shows the amount of dirt that is being moved to fill in at the back of the garden. A quick note — we have pre-built panels that are about 7.5 feet long, which dictates a length of at least three panels (22.5′) or four (30′) on each side. Rather than waste any of the good soil (the current level of soil outside the garden is the topsoil that is found naturally, high in clay and low in nutrients), we chose to maximize the garden space with a square.
The next picture shows how we started scratching out the paths. I have drawn a rough sketch (similar to the many “dream” sketches I have drawn since we moved here) that we are following. The idea is to have some perimeter paths around each trapezoidal bed that allows me to get the big wheelbarrow in (needs 2.8′) close. The trapezoids will be further divided into workable spaces with foot-width paths.
Here is a good picture of how wide the paths really are, the menfolk working hard. Of course, I was doing my share of shoveling, too (but someone had to take pics)!
And one last, showing the first trapezoidal bed almost ready to plant. By this time, it is 1 p.m. and the sun has come out, so it’s time to go inside and rest before running out to the store for starts! On the list: tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, “whatever looks good” — we’ll plant seeds later.
No illusions here: there are bunnies, there are deer. The deer will be a threat until the fence is up… but that needs to wait a couple weeks. We will rent a post-hole digger and set posts. First, I need to clean and repair those fence panels…
Leave a Reply