Remember all the grand plans I had for the garden this year?

In our new house, we started with a blank slate of lawn in our backyard.  No garden plot, no fruit trees. It was just the lawn, a poorly placed forsythia, and two rose bushes.  I use the term “lawn” loosely.  It is crab grass, several varieties of ground cover flowers, one variety of tall ornamental grass, plenty of weeds, and at least three varieties of “regular” grass.  Fixing that is a project for another year… it is probably a “nuke and pave” situation.

The goal was to put in a functional, maintainable (and budget-friendly) garden this year, which we can expand in future years.  Everything on the original list was accomplished or, as Abe likes to put it, it was “abe-complished”.

Here was the original list:
1. Build raised beds… check.
2. Fill with dirt… check.
3. Fence in raised beds to keep plants & tools in and baby & dogs out… check.
4. Try planting a topsy turvy planter… check times four.
5. Plant a wide variety of veggies to see what grows best… check.  (I’ll share what I found about our particular garden space and soil in a future post.  It was a learning experience.)
6. Eat, eat, and eat fresh vegetable goodness… check.

To start the garden, I measured our space and drew up a plan.  Then we (*ahem* Abe) built and laid out the raised beds.  Most of the wood was sourced from cull bins at home depot and from leftovers from family.

… then the raised beds were sunken into the ground (slightly), filled with dirt and the fence was started…

And finally we reached the point where we are stopping for the year…

And the lettuce (which is nearing the end) has produced more than we could eat.  We planted 5 different varieties, but my favorite has been Red Sails.

Isn’t the vibrant color wonderful?

I have been keeping track of our budget and it turns out the most expensive part was the dirt.  It makes me rethink the phrase “dirt cheap”.  I have now learned that good dirt ain’t cheap.

Next year, we will be extending the garden all the way back to the fence. Rooted and delicate plants will grow in the raised beds (parsnips, beets, radishes, carrots, lettuces, spinach, strawberries etc). The zuchinni, yellow squash, cucumber, butternut squash, pumpkin, and corn will be planted in the ground. The topsy turvy planters (planting the bottom and top) turned out to be very successful.  At the moment we have 4, but I might consider a few more next year.   Also, the chicken wire fence should be replaced with something more charming… always planning, always adding to the list… I can’t help it.