Garden tour (long) (with pictures!)

[benhyr]

I've posted some photos, but nothing to kind of show off the scale so far

So, I know it's indulgent, but I thought some people might enjoy the photos... and I love sharing photos

This is our first garden and the first time we've lived in a house with a yard.

We're trying not to water except for newly planted seeds and to settle the dirt when we transplant. Of course, given this spring, that hasn't been a problem at all

This is a shot of the north garden taken from the southeast corner looking in. That's our big, untamed pile of mulch in the foreground from our great brush chipping adventure. As you can see, we've been putting that in between our beds as well.



The fence is actually comprised of two parts. Along the bottom, we bent 2' coated chicken wire into an 'L' shape and buried it so that it's 2" underground and sticking out away from the garden. We then put 4' garden fence in front of that and left the top 12" unsecured. Of course, a 4' fence isn't much of a barrier to the true garden nemesis in our neighborhood, the whitetail deer. However, with those boxes in the way, they don't have a safe spot to land and haven't tried to break in yet.

To blend the north garden in with the rest of the yard and disguise the fact that it sticks out so far into the yard, we brought the house forward with this planting area.



Aside from eating the geranium flowers, the deer and rabbits have left this alone. Everything is deer-resistant and we've caged off the few flowers we knew the bunnies would go after. We buried soaker hose under the mulch on the off chance that we need to water.

The real engineering work went down on the south side of the house. It was covered with rocks and sloped in three directions. This is a shot of the back with some strawberry boxes installed that DW decided she wanted after I had the rest built (that's my excuse for poor connection between the boxes, I swear!)



And then I realized I could transform the rest of the hill by shoring up one side and get even more planting space:



The back box has the rest of the strawberries as well as some onions. The front box has jalapeno peppers, lemon basil, genovese basil and oregano.

And here's the entire mess dead-on from the south:



That small box in the front was another addition after DW realized we still had room and lumber

This was originally supposed to be three 12'x8' boxes but then the lumber yard substituted in 16' lengths for some of the 8' boards (same linear footage) so we decided what the heck, let's make big boxes.

The foreground, smallish box, is tomatoes and basil. Behind that is our melon patch. There are some cantaloupe, watermelon and some sort of fancy french melon. Directly behind that are carrots, broccoli, cabbage and cheddar cauliflower. Behind that are peppers and eggplant. Then, where you see most of the cages, are tomatoes and basil.... finally, to top of the terrace, are pole beans cucumbers (slicers and pickling) and two zucchini.... whew, that was tiring.

We had row cover over the broccoli bed. It blew off in a violent wind the same night we put it up. We were lazy and never put more up. So, today DW spent way too much time picking just-hatched caterpillars and eggs off the leaves. Whoever said cabbage moths are only active for the first part of the growing season was wrong... very wrong. Infestation (hopefully) avoided, we have row cover on again.

[benhyr]

Here's the lettuce box I built with my dad. It's on the deck just outside the kitchen



Down the steps from the deck was a rock garden. We're turning that into an herb garden although it's only playing host to asparagus (first year so no harvest), garlic chives, parsley and lovage



The chicken wire is only temporary until I'm happy with the fence in the back. Then I can get that down and get that horrible grass tamed back.

[benhyr]

Here's the front of the south garden:



The front half of the yard is fenced with 4' garden fence with the chicken wire down low. Five feet behind that, we're putting up a second 4' garden fence. Deer can jump really high or they can jump really far but they can't do both. So, the going theory is that they can't clear a 4'x4' section... we'll see if that holds I guess. So far, so good. I half suspect to find a deer in between the fences one of these days though. The back half of the yard, out of sight of the neighbors, is protected by a 7' deer fence with chicken wire in front of that and draped on the ground.

Of course, we don't want to lose all of that valuable planting space between the two fences and so we've planted tomatoes, sunflowers sweet peppers, basil and bush beans... and we'll probably stuff more potatoes in there this year as well.

Directly under the tree is actually shaded for most of the day. DW is going to put a small picnic table there... well, as soon as I build it.

And, last but not least, our three sisters bed (although we're making it a four sister):



It has corn planted in the hills and squash and pumpkins planted between the hills. Once the corn is up, we'll plant beans in there as well. The idea is that the beans help put nitrogen in the soil for the corn, the corn provides support for the beans, and the squash sprawls out and keeps all the weeds down. Plus the underside of the squash leaves are prickly and raccoon don't like crawling through that to get to the corn.

I'll post some of our big oops and goofs later on this thread so you experienced gardeners can get a chuckle or sympathize

[fidgiegirl]

WOW! How big is your lot? This is amazing. How many years have you been working on it?

[benhyr]

WOW! How big is your lot? This is amazing. How many years have you been working on it?

0.6 acres but the garden is just on the sides and a little of the front so we're using less than a quarter acre so far.

We started work in March but not in earnest until April

[kib]

Oh I am so jealous! My kingdom for a green place with actual soil! This is fantastic and I'm so thrilled to see front yard gardening, rock on! Or ... no rocks, on!

If you don't mind, where do you live?

[treehugger]

Please continue to indulge yourself and share your pictures! I have such a brown thumb, that looking at pictures of successful gardens is a source of joy to me.

Kara

[leslieann]

WOW. What a lot of work, and what a great chance you have for really growing much of what you use. Plus the gardens are gorgeous! I love what you did with your three way hillside.

[benhyr]

Thanks all!

It's certainly been a learning experience in both starting seeds and building stuff...

If you don't mind, where do you live?

We're in Mid-Michigan in one of Lansing's east suburbs. Feel free to stop by, but expect to be put to work if you do (in exchange for fresh veggies of course!)

[kib]

How long is your gardening season? Do you use hoop houses in winter? It looks so beautiful there, but how long is the "brown and gray period"? (I want your summer climate - All year. )