The Making of a Home Garden

For our veggie garden, we chose to use a side yard that receives little traffic and 8-10 hours of sunlight.


We dug up the yard one shovel at a time to remove the grass. It was quite a workout and took a couple of days; our black gumbo soil is akin to hardened concrete!


Not shown, we brought in a tiller and added mushroom composts and leaves saved from last fall.


After weighing the options of various garden restraint materials, we chose to build ours out of concrete cinder blocks. We partially buried the first course, using a tamp to level the ground.


To add stabilization for soil shifting, we drove stakes into the ground; the stakes are shown here placed, but not yet driven into the ground.


Our garden is just over 100sf, so we brought in six yards of soil enriched for vegetable gardens; compare this new soil to the amended soil above -- not much comparison! Maggie kept watch over the soil while we worked!


Hauling soil in.


Spreading soil throughout.


Dave and I drew up a plan for placing each veggie group; when it came time to plant, he dug all his holes first, then planted and I started by placing my plants and then digging each hole. Both methods worked fine, I just thought the contrast in style was fun and picture-worthy to note ... :-)


I loved the peat pot containers these veggies came in; simply cut the bottom off and plant without the added waste of a plastic container. Tomato plants should be planted with soil covering about 80% of the plant to help them establish a strong root system.


After planting seeds and plants, we gave each a good drink of water with fertilizer, then gave them a final drink We added the marigolds to help ward off pests (like Nematodes and Whiteflies) and the petunias, lantana, and purple queen for their pollination attributes.


We still have a few tweaks to complete the garden -- more to come!

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