during the spring, we managed to double the size of our garden. past summers have shown good results and our grass wasn’t in the best of shape - so attack it we did. It involved a little grass killing. I took my handy shovel, cut the sod into squares and then flipped it over. Not the most pleasant task but with about 250 sq ft, it took about 6 hours. we let the grass sit this way for a few weeks hoping to snuff out its life but the grass grew better when it was covered in four inches of soil than when it was exposed to light.
We took the rototiller to it one morning. Slighty difficult as the tines of the tiller had a hard time ripping throuogh the dense mat of grass. I was sore after that little event. However, once that was complete - we constructed seven 3×8 planter boxes out of various material our neighbors had given us and a few new pieces from the store. A big pile of dirt was necessary to fill the boxes. The soil under the grass wasn’t the greatest, so our best option was to get some dirt delivered and start building up some good soil where the boxes are.
We ordered about 4 cubic yards or dirt. The dirt was dumped in the the driveway and as coincidence would have it, it was timed with Megan’s spring break. She moved about 90% of the dirt as I escaped the daunting task by going to work.
Within a few weeks, Megan had expertly planted a few of her favorites in the garden. The spinach and chard have been mainstays in salads over the past month. We got a few fresh spears of asparagus out of the garden. The other delightful plants in the garden consist of strawberries, beans, potatoes, radishes, peppers, tomotoes, corn, peppers, artichokes, sunflowers, and ……. (well I’m sure there is more, I just can’t remember.)
Here are a few action photos of Megan in the garden plucking out some radishes.
i’ll try and add some more pictures as the year goes along of various fruits and vegetables that come about.
Nice vegetable garden, but what’s in the greenhouse? And how big is really this gardenplot? Do you have a hammock? Inflatable pool? Little garden animals in cast bronze? How about a small waterfall? I am very curious here. Our garden is about 40 square meters, so I guess you could say I am envious as well.
The greenhouse is in my neighbors yard. The garden itself is about the same size as yours then. 40 sq meters is about 430 sq feet. Our garden is approximately 450 sq ft. use the wonder of google to help with conversions.
beef - have you guys thought about rain barrels? i’ve always had a longing for one but i wonder how useful one would be in the northwest… when you really need the water it doesn’t rain for weeks. how much water do you think needs to be dumped on such a garden in the summertime?
Depends on where you put the rain barrel. To get the most water, you attach it to a drain spout on your roof. However, that restricts you from putting it on your garden or anything you plan to eat as there are chemicals that leach from the roof that aren’t too good for you. If you just set the barrel up and hope to catch rain from the sky – it might take you a while to get significant water. A rain barrel is most likely in the future but it will be used to water mainly plants on the deck that will not be consumed.
Sorry to hear about the greenhouse.
Whenever we try to grow edibles, the slugs get them before us. I have some nasty onions and one potato, the rest is all flowers. Oh - a few strawberries. A rainbarrel would be great for submerging the kids, miniature dunking pool. And you should not be using that kind of material for your roofs!
Strange, it looks from the pictures like your garden is much larger than ours. I’ll take some pictures and mail you tomorrow.
Foolish beef… Step 1. Roundup. Step 2. Remove dead sod. Step 3. Till soil underneath sod. = End of grass.
nasty chemicals plus i wanted to plant vegetables in that spot this year.
where would i put said dead grass. wouldn’t be good in my compost with the roundup and i don’t want to haul it anywhere. flipping it over was the best option.
i did till the soil. it just took a little more effort with the roots of the grass.
it was just as easy to build raised beds as the soil beneath it was all rocky and not of the best quality. with the new beds, i can just pull up the forms, add that soil to the exisitng and start over next year. this will be a good way to build up the soil as we go.
I think it’s time for an update. Look it how small the artichoke is in this picture and none of the cosmos are even showing in the other bed.
I’m still wrapping my brain around the fact that you have to KILL grass in order to do this. Kill the grass… I can’t begin to understand that. In NM if you’re lucky to get grass to grow and you can kill easily enough by not watering it for <3 days.