Garden progression

     When I first got my garden plot through Columbia Gardeners, it looked abandoned. The fence was made of different sized pieces zip-tied together, some of the beds had been ripped up and dragged off, and there were rusty metal scraps of braces and more fencing everywhere. The previous gardener had a casual disregard for things like whether something was biodegradable or not, and plastic plant tags were scattered and half-buried everywhere. The ground, regardless of bed layout, was a ragged mat of nettle, crabgrass, and dead bits of annual flower corpses. The list of horrors goes on, but needless to say, it was not uplifting.

     However, for those of us who are insane gardeners, it's almost impossible to give up. There's always life, always hope, always a way to clean things up and start over with spring. And that's what I did. My gentleman helped out quite a bit with the heavy lifting since the beds, while not great, were pretty sturdy. I spent a couple days cleaning up the scrap bits of metal and plastic laying everywhere, tore down and raked out the compost bins (that also were full of metal and plastic trash), and corralled all the potentially reusable bits into one corner. My gentleman's stepfather came out with his tractor and tiller, we tore two sides of the fence down, and he kindly tilled the entire thing. The dirt itself is pretty good, it just was in dire need of attention.

     After much planning, I decided to go with three tiers, as the ground slopes down about a foot and a half over 25 feet. With nothing more than a shovel, hammer, and some 1' stakes, I sectioned it off, broke apart the old boxes for lumber, and made my tiers:

     Next up, the actual boxes. By this time, it was already mid-April, and I knew I'd have to get stuff in the ground soon, but weather and my online classes conspired to slow me down a lot. I used some of the smaller, sturdier boxes we'd pulled out of the ground, but as you can see, I had a lot of room. With more help from my patient, kind, and supportive gentleman, we got 24 eight-foot landscaping timbers, cut them to size, screwed them together, and dug them into the ground. They're neither level nor perfect, but they'll do.

     I've gotten about two-thirds of the boxes planted, and what's in is growing wonderfully. Unfortunately, so are the weeds, but now that class is finished, I'll have more time to deal with them. I'm also working on putting mulch in between the boxes, to keep the mud and weeds down. After two hours this past weekend, I've gotten the first tier almost filled, as the mulch piles are literally at the opposite end of the garden from me.

     So yeah, lots of work left to do, but I am meeting fantastic people, getting a great workout, and having a blast. More pictures as things progress!