We have demolished our old garden and are building a new, low maintenance one so that we can continue to harvest beautiful vegetables in the limited amount of free time we have available. It's a lot of work and expense, but I know that it will eventually pay for itself in fresh, pesticide free produce.
Here it is after removing all the old elements and leveling it off. Seems a shame to spread all that fertile soil around to use for leveling, but we will get more.
Why and how we're doing this -
We installed the first of 8 boxes yesterday and
started on the second. We also managed to get the frame of the center sidewalk
built and the sprinkler pipes run to the boxes we built and a few we haven't. As
usual, it took a very long time to decide on the best way to build them...and a
trip to Lowes, of course. The next boxes should go much faster.
The boxes seem huge and will need lots of dirt to fill them. I'm debating building a low water system that self composts food scraps inside a cage in the center of the garden.
I'm thrilled to have been able to save my 18 month old Swiss chard plants. They were in pots but had a long root in the ground. We are watering daily until they can reestablish enough alternate root structure. They are huge and beautiful and have already given pounds of chard with no sign of letting up.
I've gardened only 8 years, the first one was already planted when we bought the land. But every year I've fought weeds until I'm out of fight and want to quit. I've tried every alternative and finally the raised beds made from reclaimed items are what stuck. Those worked for two years but I still deal with weeds around the structures. Plus, the garden is in the front of our property along the driveway and is the first thing you see when you come around the bend before our home.
So, I wanted something attractive, easy to keep up (weed FREE) and permanent. We are incredibly busy between work, homeschool, volunteer work, and so on, that the choice really is either easy gardening or no gardening, and I really want the added benefit of fresh, no pesticide produce for our family and my ETL-ing Mom and Stepdad.
The boxes seem huge and will need lots of dirt to fill them. I'm debating building a low water system that self composts food scraps inside a cage in the center of the garden.
I'm thrilled to have been able to save my 18 month old Swiss chard plants. They were in pots but had a long root in the ground. We are watering daily until they can reestablish enough alternate root structure. They are huge and beautiful and have already given pounds of chard with no sign of letting up.
I've gardened only 8 years, the first one was already planted when we bought the land. But every year I've fought weeds until I'm out of fight and want to quit. I've tried every alternative and finally the raised beds made from reclaimed items are what stuck. Those worked for two years but I still deal with weeds around the structures. Plus, the garden is in the front of our property along the driveway and is the first thing you see when you come around the bend before our home.
So, I wanted something attractive, easy to keep up (weed FREE) and permanent. We are incredibly busy between work, homeschool, volunteer work, and so on, that the choice really is either easy gardening or no gardening, and I really want the added benefit of fresh, no pesticide produce for our family and my ETL-ing Mom and Stepdad.
The first box is installed and work on the center sidewalk begins.
Our other garden produce, planted by the birdfeeders and birds...
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