*cue funeral march*
The Old Veggie Garden as we know it, is no more! :)
This is a good thing, by the way.
Mr. A surprised me yesterday afternoon when he told me that he spent the whole of it pulling up stakes and old edging.
Our soil is mainly clay, so I can't believe he actually got all those stakes up so easily. That garden's been there for 7 years.
Mr. A admitted that he had made the garden way too large. It was fun at first, and then he couldn't keep up with it, and let it go.
When I came down to live here and started gardening, I had my own delusions of grandeur. But re-breaking down the soil was a nightmare! We rented a tiller, and poor Mr. A looked like he was trying to wrangle a bull at times...
It would be so hard to keep up with the weeding, and by the following spring it would be all grass again and he'd have to mow it.
I mainly used the left end of the garden for sunflowers, rosemary and pepper plants. This is from 2007, look how little and cute my rosemary was compared to the first pic I posted!
Mr. A would use the right end for tomatoes and cucumbers.
The sunflowers were the plants that did the best in it, they didn't need prime soil to grow. And the rosemary is a shrub now. But the veggies always seemed a little peaked...only one or two small cucumbers would be squeezed out, and one of them always looked like a circus freak.
The edging was also a nightmare. Mr. A took the cheap way out, and bought some wood edging from Wal-Mart. I don't blame him, since he made the garden so huge. But it started rotting about 3 years ago, and falling apart.
When he ripped the edging out yesterday, he found that it was infested with termites.
Bleah!
The same edging is around the garden that adjoins the back porch. Needless to say, one of my first priorities this spring will be replacing that edging before the same thing happens.
So we must say farewell to Old Veggie Garden, goodbye Friend.
Well....it wasn't really a friend. More like a troublesome houseguest that had overstayed it's welcome.
:)
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13 comments:
Hi Kyna
found you via gardeness... and see you're on blogcatalog. Will look to connect with your there.
Are you listed on Blotanical? It's the best route to like-minded gardeners/readers/bloggers! Cheers, Alice
aka Bay Area Tendrils Garden Travel
Thank you for stopping by my blog! :)
Yes, I'm on Blotanical. I agree, it's a fabulous resource. :)
I checked out your blog as well. Very cool!
Kyna, I just answered my own question, about where you are from. Quite a contrast from Edmonton to North Carolina.
It sounds like you need to add a ton of compost and manure to your garden. If you plan on ever continuing.
Huge contrast. :D
I do have to do that. Amending should have been done when he first put that garden in. But my husband didn't know any better lol. When we redo this garden, it'll be done properly (more or less). ;)
Hi Kyna, thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment :-) That's great that Mr. A. took it upon himself to remove all the old edging -- and the termites, ewwww. We have a lot of clay too - quite the challenge isn't it? I'll be looking forward to seeing the progress in your garden.
Clay is a huge challenge...and if you drive a few miles from here, sand is the challenge lol. It varies so much in NC.
My husband is nice enough to do the dirtier work, that's for sure! :D
Thank you for stopping by!
Sounds like you have lots of activities going on, Kyna, and now you have space to plant or build something else in. I'm with you 'bleah'! on the termites. We don't have them here in NS and I'm glad. One less thing to worry about.
I believe we'll have some awesome cukes this year! ;)
Mr.A
Kyna, are you composting? It is the cheap way of getting nutrients into the garden and of course the most eco-friendly. I have 2 composts myself. Let me know if you need help and I will send you all the info I got in a class I took last summer.
-Karen - E-town gardener.
Hi Kyna,
What a long growing season you will have now! I wonder if those termites came with the lumber? Awful! Good luck with your gardening ... clay could sure use lots of help with compost. Leaf, manure, veggies. Everything grows better with a living healthy foundation. Looks like you have a large area to work with. Happy Gardening!
I love the space you have to go about gardening... something I don't have at the moment. Happy gardening ~bangchik
Yeah, I never thought I'd have to be worrying about termites either...didn't have 'em in Edmonton. In fact, we didn't really have any poisonous snakes or spiders either...it's kinda dangerous to garden here lol.
Extreme Gardening! :)
Mr. A: I'm going to hold you to that! No more freak cukes for us lol. ;)
Karen: No, actually composting scares me a little lol. I have no idea where to start, what to put in it, where to put it...I'd really love some info :)
Carol: Thanks for reading! I do need to do a lot of soil amending. I've already started with the garden next to my house...the dirt in that one would harden up like a brick after it rained. :( Now it's better, I think :D
Bangchik: As far as all my space...I'd love to see it filled in, but I guess that would take the fun out of it if there was nothing left to plant lol. Thanks for reading!
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