Blooms are lovely, and fresh eats from the garden amazing, yet behind those moments of glory are hours and hours of hard work and patience.
Right now I'm having trouble with the patience bit.
Because we move so frequently, I've planted so many gardens, only to leave them before enjoying the real payoff that comes about three years into nurturing a garden. Right now I am walking around with my garden plan, and the product list for Urban Harvest's annual fruit tree sale, muttering "Pakistan Mulberry here or espaliered apples?"
Year round gardening is possible here in Houston, so there are lots of things growing in my garden, but nothing looks amazing or abundant. I have to admit I've felt kind of bummed about that. This is a little post to remind myself where I started, and what I've accomplished so far in the last 4 1/2 months of being in this house. I'm just focusing on the back yard today. I'll talk about the front another time.
Here is a view of the back yard before we bought the house. There was a box hedge that you can see on the right. I cut that out with my handsaw. Along the back fence were Ligustrums that had grown into trees (as well as an Ash tree on the right). I cut most of the Ligustrums out myself and had our yard guys take out the rest. I had a tree guy remove the Ash.
This is the side of the garage. No grass was growing, the soil is compacted, it was completely shaded, and this portion of the yard floods.
Along this fence there is good sun, as evidenced by some grass growing.
So in addition to taking out the things I didn't want (which has been a slow journey), here's what I did.
I collected a van-full of concrete edgers from someone in my neighborhood. They are not my dream edges, but there was enough to build nearly all my raised beds, and FREE is my kind of price. Plus, they gave me a good workout that day.
Next, I tore the tape off of ALL our moving boxes, and used them about 3 deep to create the bottom later of my raised beds. (Recycle, reuse, repurpose is the theme of this garden.)
Once the beds were made, and lined with cardboard, I took advantage of the construction happening on our street. I had the crew dump several piles of excavated soil from in front of my house onto my driveway, which I then deposited one wheelbarrowful at a time, into the beds. It's hard to get a sense of scale here. I probably put at least 12 hours of labor just filling the beds with this soil. Maybe more?
I moved two van loads of plants that had been hanging out at my old neighbor's, waiting for their new home.
We had a fence built that can support climbing plants.
We had all the wood from the Ash stacked as firewood, and the tree guy cut us logs for stump seats around our fire pit, and cut everything he had in his truck already, into sections for our woodpile.
I have built three compost bins from wire fencing. The second is nearly full. I have been collecting the leaves from my yard in bags, and will let them rot over the winter to add to the beds in the spring.
Fruit Planted
- I built a raised bed alongside the opposite side of the garage that is a narrow, rather useless edge. It is my blackberry bed, a perfect spot actually, for a plant with some really intense thorns.
- The bed alongside the garage has a Pomegranate tree, a climbing rose, and strawberries
- Blueberries - There are five plants (three or four varieties?) in pots with 50% spagnum peat moss for acidity
- One fig is waiting to go in the ground
- One Meyer lemon in a pot
- One orange in a pot
- Papaya in a pot
Vegetables Planted
- Onions (red, white, and yellow)
- Beans just finishing
- Tomatoes still fruiting
- Heirloom Kale
- Several lettuces
- Carrots
- Silverbeet/Chard
- Artichoke
Herbs Planted
- Curry
- Rosemary
- Oregano (2 varieties)
- Various mints
- Lavender
- Dill
- Chives
- Rue
- Parsley
Because my soil is quite heavy clay, I topped is with some organic compost, and then planted a cover crop of red clover and daikon radish to improve the soil. In the spring I'll put the rotted leaves on.
Because the soil is not the best, and because the plants are overcoming transplant shock, and because it's almost winter, everything is growing in millimeters rather than inches. Yesterday I sat outside feeling blue about the distance between where I want my garden to be and where I currently am. Of course there's a long way to go, and it's okay to dream forward, but I wanted to stop and remind myself of what I've already done.
If you want more frequent peeks at what is happening in my garden, and gardens around Houston, you can like my Facebook page Sap and Green.
Okay, so that all looks AMAZING! And you've gotten it all done in less than a year!! While caring for three kids, etc.!!! (!!!)
Well done. Come spring it will be doubly amazing. (Just two or three more months.)
Posted by: Wendy | 12 December 2014 at 10:57 AM
I am impressed, exhausted, proud, and apologetic all in the same moment. You are so your mother's daughter!! (thank you--I mean, I'm sorry) :-) Except you never cease to amaze. Yes, I agree with Wendy--this is pretty astounding, and all in less than a year, much less. Give yourself room for some time off while everything "settles in" for the next few months. As gardeners we live half our reality in hoping and dreaming, knowing the fruit will come. I trust that as the whirl of holidays and family whisks you away for a couple of weeks, you will return to the task with renewed optimism and energy. Good going, wonder woman!!!!
Posted by: quietstream | 12 December 2014 at 11:55 AM