The Garden: 2001

In the summer of 1999, I tried a vegetable garden in what we thought might be the sunniest part of the yard. Based on the size of some of the vegetables (specifically the leeks), Anne decided that the garden wasn't receiving enough sun after all.

She surveyed the possibilities again and decided that the strip of land on the north side of the yard received sun most of the day and that we might have better luck there. We began by clearing the area of overgrowth.

Once we had cleared the area, we created two terraced beds on the hillside about 4 x 8 by staking maple boards at right angles to form corners to contain the soil bed and counteract the natural slope of the yard. We only needed two sides. We used the maple boards not because they were the best choice, but because I had them lying around. They were just the right width (about 7") although they warped soon after being in contact with the moist soil. We don't expect them to last a very long time in such close contact with moist soil. Maybe we can raise us up a crop of termites while we're at it.

Anne's just waiting patiently for me to finish taking the picture so she can get started.

The raised bed design enabled us to bury the problem soil (the gravel-encrusted clay soil), Now it was time to "make the bed" by filling each bed with good soil. We spread a bag of peat moss on top of the existing soil. All we needed to do now was fill the beds with good soil, and we'd be ready to begin planting. Although the raised beds let us ignore the clay and gravel soil, we had to add soil to raise the level near the top of the bed. We added a mixture of about 2 to 1 of low-grade top soil with a better grade of top soil. The beds have been constructed and now all we have to do is add some topsoil and peat moss to make a nice home for our plants.

The final step was to give the soil mixture a good soaking.

Daffodil Patch

April 6: First blooms, two daffodils! Hyacinth already blooming.

April 15: Took pictures of the bed. At this point there were 19 white and 27 yellow blooms. The count refers to flowers that were completely open; there were many more buds that haven't opened yet.

Weekends (May 12 and May 19) installed raised beds two levels after clearing the area over the previous weekends. May 19 - 20 Anne planted vegetables. Tomatoes, banana peppers, strawberries...

Tree fern! Anne picked it up May 30, 2001. We named her "Laverne."