In the Garden – Ground Zero

May 29, 2011 · Filed under 2011, Calibrachoa, Flowers, Garden Maintenance, Herbs, Lettuce and Greens, Passion Flower Vines, Peppers, Pollinator Garden, Purple Coneflowers, Squash, Tomatoes, Vegetables, Watermelon, Zucchini

While there aren’t many perks to having a pre-teen in the house (I kid, I kid… sort of) I have to say that a major one this year was being able to finally tear down Montazuma’s Swingset in the backyard and replace it with… what else?  A vegetable garden!

The original veggie plot was 8′ X 24′, certainly nothing to sneeze at, however, the incredibly useless swingset plot was twice  its size.  This year we finally decided that, in addition to having become a death trap after years of use and abuse (and no maintenance whatsoever) and the boy-child turning 12, that puppy was just taking up too much valuable land and had. to. go.  While I was at work one afternoon the husband did all the demolition work and hauled the sad remnants of an era long since passed out to the curb.  I assure you that we were NOT the garbage man’s favorite that week.

With the available garden space now tripled, we come to the weekend of May 14th – Garden Ground Zero.  After tilling up the old garden plot and the newly acquired area, we decided to just go ahead and turn over the 3 1/2′ walking path between the two raised beds to the garden as well.  What the heck, who needs to walk in the garden?  I’ll learn to hover!  Next up was skimming the uppermost soil off of the original garden to use in the old walking path and then carting 8 yards of a topsoil/mushroom soil mix from the driveway back to the newly expanded garden.  Just to be clear, 8 yards is A LOTTA FREAKING DIRT!!!!  It was heavy and, had I been able to lift my arms above my head at the end of the day I may have chucked the wheelbarrow at the husband who mysteriously disappeared when it came time to haul said dirt.  Did I mention that it was also raining?

Of course, I must give credit where credit is due though, I wasn’t left totally alone as the husband did return in time to till in the new soil, fill a hole in the yard that we have deemed the “hole to hell” and accompany me to the garden center to pick up this year’s starts.  Before this year we didn’t have an area in our house that received sufficient sunlight to start seeds, so we have always bought starts from the local nursery.  With the addition of a new screened in porch that sports a handy-dandy almost flat black roof AND a seed starting bench with grow lights in the basement though, I will be able to start all of my own plants next year.

Dodging thunderstorms we managed to get in tomatoes, peppers, basil, collards, cucumbers, watermelon, squash and zucchini in the large bed.  Where the walking path used to be we put in some stepping stones and between each stone I planted a different type of lettuce or leafy green vegetable.  In the pollinator and herb gardens at the back and side of the house we put in a whiskey barrel of bee balm, 2 purple coneflowers, calibrachoa, catnip, parsley, stevia, chives and some dahlias.  Along the other side of the house is a large arbor that my father-in-law built me last year where I finally planted passion flower vines and nasturtium.

It was a looooooong weekend but it was good to get so much done in one fell swoop.  I’m not a patient person so I don’t much like doing things in bits and bobs.  I’m more of a – jump in with both feet until I’m in WAY over my head and then either sink or swim – kind of person.