Rebuild Time

The garden at the very start of the rebuild.

We first built our little garden way back in 2015. We had just moved into our new house the summer before and we transformed the old broken-down above-ground pool in the back yard into my rendition of a Shaker-style garden. (Read about the building process here, here, and here.) Well, nine years have passed and the plywood on the beds is falling apart, the fence has gone wavy, and the gate is held together with twine. So, it's rebuild time!

My husband found some metal garden beds online for a good price so we ordered six of them - enough to redo half the garden. We decided to wait on the other half because I haven't decided how to deal with the established asparagus and herb beds yet. The new beds arrive a few days later in flat packages and then the work began.

Production begins.

He took on the production of the beds and I lightly supervised. They seemed to go together fairly easily and while they are rather light-duty, they are as expected for the cost. In a couple of evenings after work, he got all six assembled and ready to be put into place.

New beds ready to go.

There were four old wooden beds to be removed. Two of them measured 11 feet by 4 feet and two more were 11 feet by 2 feet. That's 132 square feet of space filled  probably 8 to 10 inches deep with soil that all needed to be moved so that we could put in the new metal beds. 

So much dirt to move.

My husband got started with the shoveling while I was at work and I jumped in during two of my vacation days. We shoveled soil from one bed onto the others, removed the gravel that made paths between the beds, then tore out the wooden boards. 

Out with the old and ready for the new.

We shoveled and shoveled and hoed and raked and rested and got back to it as we watched the forecast for incoming rain. We were really lucky to get a couple of solid days with glorious spring weather in which to work.

More than halfway there.

It was a multi-day project with plenty of aches and pains and bruises to go around but I actually really enjoyed the work. Not that I'm anxious to do it again right away, but I don't dread the second half of the project next year.

All done!

Though we're finished replacing half the beds, as planned, there's still more to do this season. We're going to re-do the fence next, probably with a new gate. The wooden walkway is still nicely solid, though, and will stay as it is for many years to come. 

Rhubarb still a little droopy from the transplant.

Now it's time to turn my attention to the plants. During the earth-moving process, I split up our rhubarb and moved half of it outside the garden. I also weeded the asparagus bed and had my first harvest of chives. I hope to get the hardier seeds into the ground this weekend (though I haven't worked out an actual plan yet) and there's still a good month and some days before the more delicate veg gets planted. I'm excited to get things started!

Toad!

And, as always, there was at least one animal involved in our goings-on. I uncovered this little toad in a shovel of gravel. I don't think I hurt him but he wasn't thrilled with the paparazzi treatment.

First Seeds in the Ground

It was the perfect weekend to work on the garden. I’m glad I planned ahead so we had nearly two full days to move soil and build fencing. When our six cubic yards of garden blend soil arrived at around 10:30 Saturday morning, the driver told me that it was a good thing I had gotten my order in early. He was already booked solid for deliveries and folks who had called on Friday, presumably trying to take advantage of the gorgeous weather that had been forecast, would have to wait until Monday.

Soil ready to be moved into the garden beds

As I was paying for the soil, another delivery truck arrived with the twelve blocks of peat moss I had also ordered. It was kind of fun blocking up the street for a little while all for the sake of my new garden. From my experience last year with the museum’s garden beds, I know that the soil around here can be heavy with clay. Even as part of a garden blend that contained sand and compost, I knew we’d have to lighten it up a bit.

Peat moss with a bonus free gift – a wooden pallet!

So, with all our bed-filling ingredients ready to go, my husband and I got to work. Before we moved any soil, however, we lined the sides of each bed with 7 mil plastic. The recycled plywood we used to build the beds was pressure treated. That’s why it’s still usable and not just a rotten pile of mush but we don’t want chemicals leaching into the soil and then into the plants.

It took about three hours and 52 wheelbarrow trips to fill all eight beds with layers of garden soil, peat moss, and shredded leaf mulch. My husband shoveled and moved load after load while I raked everything into the beds and blended it all together. By the middle of the afternoon, the pile of dirt was nearly gone and I was ready to sit down.

Progress by the end of the day Saturday

On Sunday, we picked up work again. My husband moved the last of the soil into the garden beds and I did some more blending. It think it’ll be a while until all the soil components are really worked together but if gardening has taught me anything, it’s patience. With the beds now filled to my liking, it was time to plant some seeds. The first official planting in the garden was actually a horseradish root. After that, I put in my cool season vegetables – spinach, chard, peas, beets, carrots, scallions, pak choi, and arugula. I planted them all in one bed in a series of wide rows using twine as a guide. I made a small fence for the peas at the end of the row for easier picking.

Rows lined off and ready to plant

While I was planting, my husband was building. We need a fence around the garden. That is an indisputable fact. There is a lot of wildlife in the area and while I enjoy watching the deer and rabbits and occasional woodchuck, I do not plan on feeding them from my garden. Most of the perennials growing around the house have already been sampled. We salvaged some lattice fence from the old pool to use around the garden.

Starting the fence

The lattice is two feet tall so when placed on top of the edge of the garden beds, we get a three-foot tall fence. On the north side, however, the beds sit into a slight hill so it is, effectively, only a two-foot fence. A deer can easily lean over a fence like that to nibble on my plants. I plan on planting vegetable along the inside of the fence that, in my experience, deer don’t usually browse but we also have a back-up plan. We added five-foot tall posts in the corner so that, if needed, we can stretch a line higher above the fence and add tin pie pans or whatever that might deter the deer. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all works out.

The garden on Sunday afternoon

I made it through the weekend with just a few minor scrapes and bruises, some sore muscles and an unexpected sunburn on the backs of my elbows. I have to say, that when I stood in my garden with the fence all around and the first seeds planted I felt almost giddy with happiness. It is exactly how I envisioned it!

My Shaker Garden!

Spring is Here!

We’re just over a week into spring and I’m anxious to get working on the gardens. It snowed a couple of days ago and the ground is still pretty squishy so there’s not really much I can do outside yet. We did get a couple raised beds built today, though. Last fall we cut the recycled plywood from the demolished pool into 12-inch wide strips. We pieced them together to make two raised beds – one 4-feet wide by 11-feet long and another 2-feet wide by 11-feet long. We filled the 1-foot wide path between them with gravel salvaged from around the former pool. It’s really nice to see the beds in place. It gives me a better idea of what the garden will look like when it’s finished. I have no doubt that I’ll have plenty of space for everything I want to grow.

Two beds in place -- six more to go.

The warmer weather is starting to wake up plants around the yard. The mystery bulbs are coming up next to the house. When I weeded the overgrown patch next to the driveway in the fall, I found dozens and dozens of bulbs. I had no idea what they were so I buried them again and figured I would know in the spring. It looks like I’m going to get some daffodils, tulips, and a couple varieties of hyacinths. 

Mystery bulbs next to the house.

The day lilies off the back porch are starting to pop up too but everything else is still asleep. It’ll be interesting to see what is planted around the yard. I know there are hostas out front that the deer like to eat. We also have peonies by the garage but I have no idea what color they are. This first spring in the new house should be an adventure!