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.

The Side Garden, Part 1

When we first moved into our house the previous owner had a cute little strawberry patch in the side garden.  The house was framed with peonies and a forsythia bush.  It was adorable and picturesque and by the time we moved in, the lawn and garden had not been weeded or watered in a month, and that month happened to be July, the second hottest month of the year.  We tried to save the strawberries but instead we murdered them slowly over a year by viciously weeding and leaving them stripped, naked and bare all winter.  *sigh* Oh, well.  No time for regrets let's push onward.

I decided to put the Fig, Kiwis and Paw Paws in the side garden (and if there is room okra, eggplant and peppers), on the East side of the house.  It is one of the only places in our yard with a reasonable windbreak.  Recently we acquired a chain link dog run, with hopes that we will house dairy goats in the near future.  That will also go on the East side as well.  To increase the temperature I plan on utilizing a lot of rock and cement in shaping the beds and to hopefully add a little humidity I want to have some kind of water feature, like a bird bath or twenty.  Adam and I recently acquired a generous stack of cinder blocks via Craigslist Angel, Sherrie which led me to investigate how I could incorporate them.  During my research I found this really cool cinder block wall garden:




I think it would be crazy, wicked and it would kind of act as a rock garden too, plus it would provide gardening space while helping to make things feel "cozy" instead of "cramped".

The space designated for the side garden is approximately 14' x 25' (by approximate I mean I just thought about it for a minute and said "yeah, that sounds right") and I want to dedicate half of that space for the dog run.  So the actual garden would be 7' x 25' which is not a lot of room to work with but what some may see as a disadvantage I see as a bonus.  The less space there is the more bio-intensive the garden will be and therefore the better the microclimate.  At least that is where my logic has taken me. 

Previously the fence all around our yard was waist-height chain link.  Our neighbor to the East has a six foot tall white wood fence and we plan on matching what she has when we move the fence line.  Changing the fencing material should add an additional windbreak, provide more privacy and give some shade to the Paw Paws.  Paw Paws are understory trees and grow best in partial shade their first few years.  So right now I am planning of putting them right up against the fence.  The following is a sketch that I just whipped up. 

 

Right now it is tabula rasa, just flat dirt and old sod with some peonies and crocus popping up along the side of the house.  First thing that needs to happen is that we need to put this dog run together and see how much space it will take, then build a new fence, then take down the old fence.  I already started to dismantle the old fence but luckily I thought about it for half a second before I tore it all the way down.  Hmm, I thought, I have toddlers and ducks that like to free range...if this fence isn't here then they won't be here either.

So that is on my personal honey-do list for this weekend.