Karl's Garden Blog

Wow! What a weekend I had. I busted my ass to get the garden enclosed, and it paid off. Yay! I can have a life again and can go do things on weekends with other people!

When we last left our heros...

Over the past week, I finished mixing the dirt. The total toll was about 2 cubic yards of sand and 2 cubic yards of composted horse manure. I’m giving it the chance to settle in and get rained on a few times, and then I’ll take a few samples and test them with my home chemistry set. (Not kidding; watch for a future post on this. Or go read the details over at The Cheap Vegetable Gardener.)

My main design requirement for a garden is that the garden space be dog- and bird-proofed. This means that I need to be able to walk inside it and it needs to be enclosed and sturdy. My environment dictates that I use a raised bed due to soil type and rainfall considerations. My limitation on how much space I can effectively enclose that’s in full sun means that I need to get the maximum out of the garden, which means I need to use an approach like Square Foot gardening. It’s funny how your design constraints can drill you down to one ideal design, isn’t it?

Walkway and square foot markers.

To make up for space lost to the walkway, some items are going to be grown in hanging baskets or pots on the planking to maximize the veggie space. Oh well. Could be worse.

Eventually as I plant things, I’ll mulch up to just above the level of the walkway to help with water retention and drought resistance. Some dirt will be added (and some will be removed!) in the process of gardening.

I put chicken wire all around the sides to keep the dogs out and to help provide a structure for some of the plants. It’s bubbled a bit by design; that gives me firmer footing on some of the smaller areas by standing on the edge of the garden. The “railing” is set high at 4 feet because I want to use it as a shelf in some cases. Bird netting will go over the entire thing and will get “sewn” in to the chicken wire to hold it down. I’ll suspend baskets of annuals in the middle and on the outside to promote pollinators.

Chicken Wire getting tacked on

The doorway (and hence the interior is tall enough for me to stand in; it’s about 6 feet tall.

It feels great to be done, but I’m sore as heck today!

All done, with the gate installed.

And the first victim is in the ground! I couldn’t NOT plant something after all that work.

It's a sacrificial onion!