No Mistakes In It Yet

"Marilla, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"
~ Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

I thought of this passage in one of my all time favorite books as I did some serious garden reconfiguration this past week.  We spent some money and a whole lot of time but these are one time costs and labors and I think it will pay off in years to come.  Behold, my new layout with raised beds and no mistakes in it yet.

And by mistakes, I mean weeds, rocks, and thick clay-ey soil. 

We bought our house in July of 2008.  There was this odd little patch of grass to the side of the house, framed in by big rectangular stones.  Between the stones and fence there were boxwood bushes and daylilies and one side was shaded by a rickety shed on a concrete slab just off our patio.  I can't find any good pictures of the shed or any of the grass since I dug it out pretty soon after we moved into the house.  I divided and planted a tomato plant that had been given to me and grown from seed by Stephen's Uncle Ed from Atlanta.  I had zero gardening experience and was excited to have a huge yard and the opportunity to learn so I also went to a local garden store and asked what seeds it wasn't too late to plant.  They gave me some suggestions and I so I stuck some seeds in the ground.  Below you can see the original configuration of the bed after I'd torn up the grass and planted a few things.  There were three smaller beds with areas to walk between them and you can see the daylilies all around and the shed in the back.

The next year I had big dreams and plans and started a bunch of stuff from seed indoors.  We had a very windy storm at some point in the winter that blew the shed halfway over so we tore it down the rest of the way which eliminated the shade on the plot.  Here you can see where the shed used to be.

I had done some research on gardening and vegetable gardening by then and had decided to try the Square Foot method.  I installed some little wooden edgings to delineate my three beds, dug out one section of daylilies by the concrete slab to make it easier to access the beds, and put up a plastic fence around the whole shebang to keep the dog out. 

I used twine to mark off my squares.  I liked being able to reach things a bit better but the wooden edgings and twine didn't stay put.  I built a pea trellis with some stakes and string I already had and we got some PVC pipe to build a sturdier trellis for the tomatoes and cucumbers.

The pea trellis tipped over and the PVC trellis actually snapped under the weight of the tomato vines before the season was over.  I was also constantly battling weeds. 

Last year I moved the remaining daylilies and boxwoods and put down mulch so I'd have easy better access.  I abandoned the little wooden edgings and put in some aisles using pieces of wood we had.  These had been an edging around our walnut tree but the tree had pushed them out and Stephen replaced them with stones.

So, the wood for aisles seemed like a good idea since it was what we had and would stay put but they were slippery when they were wet and not wide enough.   The plants quickly grew over the aisles so it was difficult to walk on them and reach all the plants from the aisles.

I used some of the PVC pipes from the previous year and some unfolded tomato cages to build a trellis for the cucumbers and melons.

This held up well but wasn't tall enough when everything was really flourishing.

We built a new tomato trellis with thicker PVC pipe and made it 6 feet tall.

It did beautifully under the tremendous weight of our crazy tomatoes.

We also added two new beds on the other side of the fence.This was what I told Stephen I wanted for Mother's Day.  He helped me do the digging and we bought some soil and mulch.  I don't really have a good picture of the two beds but you can see them in the back of this shot.

So my goals for structuring the garden this year are: clearly defined raised beds with good access, another PVC trellis, weed barrier cloth and fresh soil, a cold frame, and chicken wire covers to keep the critters out.  The first step was prying out the old wood aisles and on a whim I reassembled the original box shape on the slab that used to house the shed.

Building a cold frame using that old window pane is going to be the most challenging aspect of the whole thing, I think.  You can also see in the background of that picture a couple of the giant stone slabs that edged in the garden plot.  I hated the way that space was laid out.  It was a funky shape with one end much wider than the other.  The spaces between the plot and the fences were too small.  So I sucked it up, dug out the stone slabs (which each weigh approximately 2 million pounds), and made a nice rectangular area with wider aisles and no unnecessary space between the plot and the shed slab.

Having more room on the sides makes it no longer necessary to have aisles within the plot.  Just three 4 by 4 beds with easy access around the whole 4 by 12 thing.  Once the area was framed out with the stone slabs, I worked on leveling the dirt so the boxes would sit nicely.  Lila supervised.

Weed cloth went down in each box and two more boxes were cut down to 4 by 3 feet and assembled on the other side of the fence.  I moved the tall trellis to one of those boxes.

We got one load of fresh soil and I replanted the strawberry patch in the first filled box.

When it gets warmer some of the summer vining veggies will grow on that trellis.  So the remaining work is to buy more fresh soil, build the cold frame, build the chicken wire covers, and build another trellis.  We are lucky to have had some gorgeous weather last week that made it so nice to be outside working on this.  Lila loved being outside with me and exploring the backyard!  I love her dirty behind in this picture.

I'm so excited for this gardening season in my pretty and clearly defined new beds!  The organizational squareness of it all warms this catalog librarian's heart.  And it will be so nice to work with fresh soil and be able to reach everything easily!  Of course weed seeds will blow in and certainly new problems will crop up and I'll make mistakes.  But not yet.

"Marilla, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

"I'll warrant you'll make plenty in it," said Marilla. "I never saw your beat for making mistakes, Anne."

"Yes, and well I know it," admitted Anne mournfully. "But have you ever noticed one encouraging thing about me, Marilla? I never make the same mistake twice."

~ Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery