One of the things I was most excited about when we moved was access to the co-op gardens. I put my name on the waiting list at the end of September (2011) and received word I had a plot at the beginning of June. I was able to pick between two plots, both needing a lot of work. They were like comparing apples and oranges; one had morning sun, one had afternoon sun; one had productive neighbors, one didn't; one was closer to our house, the other closer to the playground. I finally decided based on my gut. I kept seeing myself clearing this one.
And boy did I have my work cut out for me. It had basically been abandoned and a trash heap for quite some time. Never mind that it was so overgrown with the neighbor's grape vine that I didn't even really know what I was getting.
I figured I was late in the season to start a spring garden, but with all the work that needed to be done, my goal was to be ready for the fall season. Because of our climate here, we have two really strong seasons. And in retrospect, last spring's season seemed to be hard for a lot of people because of the heat, so I really didn't miss much.
The first day E and I worked in the garden, we concentrated on cleaning up the front area outside the fence and getting rid of the trash.
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| E is always happy when he can be in charge of the water :) |
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| After clearing trash and junk as well as removing the grass, this is what we were left with. |
Day 2 was all about the grape vine. I cut and hacked and pulled until that sucker was clear. (And yes, I had talked to my garden-neighbor before doing it. He actually offered, but I told him I'd do it.) By the time I was done, I had unearthed about 4 shovels, 8-9 tomato trellises, numerous hand tools, silver ware, cups, bowls, a terracotta pot, a strawberry pot, stepping stones, bricks, two dead rats and a fence!
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| The heaps to the right behind the front fence is the cut vines. |
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| R.I.P. dead rats - btw I give myself mad props for dealing with them on my own (aka without a guy) |
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| The inner fence |
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| Cleared of debris |
After many days of weeding, pulling grass and tilling the soil, I was left with this!
Now, the plan all along was to build planter boxes into the dirt. Not only had I watched the other gardeners prepare their gardens for The War of Many Gophers, I was told the soil sucked. BUT, I was also told by people who had brought in all new soil, that they had trouble with things that grew easily here. So I decided to use a combination of native soil, amenities and new soil.
After thinking a LOT, researching and planning, I went back and forth with what to do (reclaimed wood v. new; planters v. bales). I finally decided that given my particular situation with a husband who's very busy with school, working full time and having a 3 year old, I just didn't have time to hunt for reclaimed wood (never mind there is reason to be concerned over what may be leeching into the soil from the wood treatments) or bring in and dispose of bales every season. I would pay it forward and install new cedar beds. I did some calculations and build my beds based on the lumber dimensions. By doing this, the lumber yard was able to do all the sawing for me.
My parents came down for a day and helped me assemble the boxes and get them into my plot. I ended up with a 3X4 12 inch deep box, a 2X8 12 inch deep box, and a 2X8 24 inch deep box (for root veggies).
Now, one of my primary reasons for doing what I did, was this pile of rusted chicken wire. I knew that the chicken wire my fellow gardeners were using to line their beds wouldn't work to keep out the gophers. In fact someone at some point lined my entire garden with it. Guess what? I had a gopher freeway under my garden when I moved it (made tilling very easy!). So I anchored hardware cloth to the bottom of my beds. It shouldn't rust, should keep the gophers out and shouldn't entrap any other animals like gopher snakes.
After much (I mean MUCH) digging by all (this truly was a family affair, even Mary got in on the action while she was here for a visit) this is what our little garden looked like.
At the beginning on October, we finally were ready to plant! I may have over bought (forgot I needed to pay attention to planting distances). So the boxes are full and we will hopefully get a lot of great stuff this season!
We ended up planting: broccoli, sweat peas, cauliflower, cabbage, savoy cabbage, brussels sprouts, chard, head lettuce and red leaf lettuce from starters. We also planted carrots, beets, French radishes, turnips, garlic and onions from seeds/bulbs. I also threw in a rosemary, cilantro and basil plant in the terracotta pot (mostly because I ran out of space).
And things really started to grow!!
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| radish seedlings |
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| left to right: brussels sprouts, turnips and radishes |
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| left to right: chard, head lettuce, red leaf lettuce, chard |
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| The garden settling in |
And our first harvest! B can attest those radishes were delicious. Our garden is about twice as big as in the picture above and I have since cut some of the chard and lettuce (yum!). Its amazing to think I won't have to buy bag salad for a while :)
The work in the garden isn't done. I want to replace the old chicken wire fence with something more substantial and I want to add a gate (this may be a special request from E and who am I to argue!). So hopefully we can do a bit more of the heavy work over winter break when I have access to some stronger muscles again!
