The Side Garden, Part 2

So my guess-timation of the space was a little off.  I had guessed that the space was 14' x 25' but it actually is 12' x 21', I give myself points for being pretty close for just eyeballing it but in a cozy space like this two feet is a lot to over-estimate.  With the new correct dimensions I moved features around just a bit.  Instead of the cinderblock 3-D garden being backed up to the dog run I moved it against the neighbor's fence.  I was debating whether to do a garden bed for my nightshade veggies at all.  But then Craigslist Angel Dominic gave us eight railroad ties and I just had to put them to use somehow.

Over the weekend Adam built the fence which in total cost us ~$100 in supplies from The Home Depot ( three 4x4s, twenty-six cedar pickets, four 2x4s, and two bags of quick set concrete).  I whitewashed the street side of the fence a day later.

Here are some pics of the side garden in process.  When Adam's parents came to visit last month we started to rip up the turf so these pictures are a little rough, just warning you.  

 The finished product

Before I painted the fence I played a little tetris with the cinderblocks and although I reserve judgment on how "pinterest worthy" my work is I am confident when the cinder-garden is filled with strawberries, creeping rose, "walk on me" thyme and kiwi vines.  I am pretty happy with the results so far and since this garden feature cost me zero dollars I think that its totally worth it.

 

Now that the new fence was up we could take down the old chain link fence and put in the dog run.   The old fence was no trouble.  The dog run was a little tricky.  We have never assembled anything using chain link let alone a craigslist special dog run sans instructions. The seller did tell me that it was a FenceMaster.  I had thought no problem I could just look up the directions online but Google failed me.  Still there were plenty of pictures and my common sense which served us well.  It turned out that I had purchased two 10'x10' dog runs.  We pieced together a dog run roughly 7'x20'.  We were short on rail end clamps but it was no problem to go to Tholl fencing and get some.  I carpeted the run with wood chips which we currently have an excess of, piling a heap on the south side since goats are known for playing king of the hill. 

Once the dog run was up and skinned with chain link we constructed a little planter with four railroad ties, three to form a tall back (and hopefully a sufficient barrier between the eventual goats and our veggies) and one for the lip on the front.  The remaining railroad ties we used to build two more garden beds one, you may have noticed, in front of the freshly white-washed fence and the other under our window in the backyard.

We aren't completely finished with the side garden, there are still trees and plants that have yet been shipped let alone planted and I need to furnish the goat pen with some sort of shelter, water trough and keyhole manger, hmm there's time for that later.  The posts from the previous chainlink fence remain in place, Adam may need to utilize a hacksaw to remove those, at least the middle one.  I am still working on laying flagstones (re-purposed from the front yard) but I did manage to fill the long bed with soil and plant some Wando peas.  They are said to be ready to harvest in 70 days, just in time to give us some green and fix some nitrogen before I rip them out to make room for okra, eggplant, and peppers.