A month into our new place I finally found the batteries for our push lawn mower (and ancient Greenworks), which was….something desperately needed.
Our new place is almost nothing but lawn (oh yay) and we were looking very unkempt. The rain this spring has led to very lush lawn, which then gave a place for these annoying gnat like flies to hide in, that swarm on warm days.
As I pushed that awful broken down mower, it gave me a lot of time to think about where to put a garden. Having a month here, I have had time to watch the sun shift. My original idea, behind the house, doesn’t really feel like it will be a good choice after all. It only gets sun in the afternoon for a few hours, and is in the shade by the house by 5 pm, and is sloped downhill in general. It’s also in an area that holds the water better, so the grass grows deeper back there. There is a seasonal emergency creek that divides the properties here, in case of heavy rain, and we can’t build anything within a certain distance, so I realized that a garden there might just have far too many issues.
(The trees in the mid right of the photo below are just above the creek area)
Not long after this, my awesome neighbor offered to mow the rest of our lawn on his ridie. The worst parts – super thick and heavy down by the creek. He saved me at least 6 hours of mowing and many charging of those batteries. By the next time I need to mow, we should have the flail mower on the tractor, and it won’t be hard.
Instead, there is an area to the left of the house that is nearly flat, dry and hard packed. Not great for in ground, but raise beds? Yes. Perfect. It needs a tree taken out (an unattractive pine tree), and it gets nice sun exposure.It is in the sun by mid morning, and holds sun till well past dinner time.
It’s also more importantly, mostly flat. It’s on very hard pack land, so not good for an inground garden at all. We also have rock seams around the upper parts, and I am sure under this area it has lots of rock buried. So, great for raised beds!
I will have to work out water for the site, but I think it will work well over time.
The bed will have pro farm/garden fabric laid down, to ensure weed free growing, and to block rodents as well I am considering laying under that hardware cloth. It will be properly fenced in, as we do have some deer, though they keep to the edges, near the farm a bit away from us. No need to offer an all you can eat buffet though.
The goal is to have a garden big enough to have a greenhouse in the center, with beds around it, and pots as well. With walking space between the beds, that I can line with chipped wood to walk on. Unlike the last 7 years, I want/need this to look like I planned it, and have it nice looking as it will be visible from the road.
This is the start of the new garden – it will be major work – but beyond worth it.
I have to do something. The container garden is crazy down on the patio – I can’t help myself. I love plants way too much. It encourages me to get moving on the project.
The raised beds:
In the past years, and last 3 properties, I was more about just having beds and not the look. So I would use a hodge-podge of materials. Reclaimed pavers, cinder blocks, felled trees. Whatever I could source, preferably for the lowest cost. This time I want them to match. It pains me to spend the money – but I want it nice.
I have been using grow bags on the patio this spring, and they work pretty well, so I was intrigued to find that I could source grow bags that line metal raised beds. And they are compartments, so you can grow things like mint, and keep them from growing under and taking over. They are 4 feet by 4 feet and a foot high. If you are using 8 by 4 foot raised beds, you can fit two of them in.
I picked up a twin pack of 8 by 4 by 1 foot beds for $69.99 from Amazon to try out, to see if I liked the look, were they durable and such. They have a rod in the center for stability.
The grow bags I picked up (I ordered two packs of them). They were $19.99 for each two pack. They are the same felt materiel as most grow bags are. The compartments are 2 feet each, giving you 4 compartments per bag, or 8 total in an 8 foot raised bed. They can seem overwhelming when you open them up, but once filled and in a frame, do just fine.
So not square foot gardening, but 2-square foot gardening!
Why use liners?
There are a couple of reasons to use liners:
- Soil stays in the bags and doesn’t leak out over times as it settles (which happens in the raised beds).
- It offers weed protection, from coming up from below. Too often (and me included) it’s easy to lay down cardboard and think you won’t have weeds in your beds because of that. Well, you won’t the first year. But after? Eventually grass comes up and so does dandelions, thistles and more.
- It helps hold in moisture.
- It controls plants with compatibility issues – such as peppermint, lemon balm, well honestly ALL plants from the mint family. It keeps their roots from spreading everywhere.
I ended up buying more.
With the risk of China tariffs, I went back and bought more, to prepare for the garden. It’s going to be done, so might as well get ready!
I’ll post an update once I start the building of the garden – first I need to get any potential utilities flagged so I know where they are, since I will be putting posts into the ground.
FTC Disclosure: This post contains affilate links.
~Sarah