Our garden has undergone many shapes, types and sizes. We have done the tilled in the ground type. We used railroad ties and trucked in good dirt and tried that. We have fenced it in with the chickens (huge mistake). We have left it fenced in with the chickens but fenced them out (also huge mistake raccoons, chickens and then 3 kids laid waste to it). We had given up, until we discovered square foot gardening.
We did low 4×4 boxes out of lumber Bill had milled from trees that went down here on the property. We made the mix, we used wood strips to make grids, we followed the guidelines of what to plant and where to plant it. We also put up a 8′ tall fence with doors that locked and floppy metal flashing on the top to stop critters that can climb.
At last success. Many seasons later things were showing wear and we thought we had to leave for Bill’s work. I refused to give up certain plants AND we needed to have the foundation sealed which meant that all that landscaping needed to be saved. I bought big black tubs and started to dig. We ended up not having to move and all the foundation landscaping had been saved. Now I had big black tubs. Then I got sick. I thought my garden days were done because I could not walk or stand. What I could do was sit so Bill built me the metal garden beds which are 2″ tall. He put them right by the front of the house so that I could get to them.
I started to get better so we replaced the low beds in the garden with these taller ones. Metal roofing and PVC because the beds we liked were too expensive but he could make me these.
We filled them with logs and leaves and garden dirt and then topped it all off with good planting mix. I couldn’t help so our youngest son worked with him and they built me a garden that I could sit and work in. It just kept expanding and as I kept getting better so did the garden. Last year Bill and Sam ran fencing all around the new larger garden and we finished putting down landscape fabric to stop the crazy weeds that I could not keep up on. The black tubs had raspberries that needed homes in them and we added blackberries and blueberries and loganberries and currants and I love it.
We just keep adding, There are 3 8′ long metal boxes against the shop wall. Then a wide path, a 8’x 2′ x 2′ box where 7 blueberries lived/live. Then three rows of the large black pots.
The plan had been to have the greenhouse start after these black pots. Coming off the back of what we call the she shed and running down the slope. A huge downside to this plan is that slope and how uneven everything is. It would require a HUGE amount of work, digging, and fill to make anything close to level. We also wanted to protect all these berries from the birds. Last year we made a PVC frame to protect all the blueberries and the new Loganberry and currant. It worked and we got our biggest harvest yet. It was also extremely difficult to work with. We dreamed about having a berry room that was completely netted in with doors and you could walk in it. That became the plan, make a berry room and make a greenhouse. Have you ever had one of those ideas that just doesn’t fit in your head? Something about it seems wrong or awkward and because of that you just never get started on that project.
Getting all those tubs and beds ready this year we were sitting in our happy place and talking. We talked about something that we had never talked about before. Maybe it was because two of the blueberries in the metal bed didn’t make it through the winter. Maybe it was because it was just this idea’s time. What if we moved all those blueberries into their own tubs? We can’t amend the dirt in there and it’s sinking. What if we just did a redo? Then what if we moved all the berry pots to the outside wall of the garden fence? Then we could put the greenhouse where the metal bed and first row of tubs are it’s fairly flat there! Plus all the berry tubs would be on flatter ground and we already have water run to that area! THEN what if we got another large greenhouse and didn’t use the plastic but instead just used bird netting! Instant berry room!
It’s evolved a little more since that night but moving everything and setting up the new greenhouse where that metal bed is now is still the plan. It will require a little bit of build up to level on the one end but not as much as it would require if we went anywhere else with it.
We may buy another greenhouse or Bill might make a pipe bender and we will just buy pipe. If he does that then not only can we make the berry room any way we want but I can finally get my gate for the driveway! We can use the design of the greenhouse we bought and since we are using netting not anything that snow load or rain could build up on we don’t need to worry about as much. Life just got easier.
What an exciting year. Add to that a garden fence extension that will bring it all the way to the back of the house and things are very happy up here. We can add compost bins into the garden and Tas will have an amazing area that he can run in.
As things move along we will post the hows and how nots. It’s not perfect but it is happy.
