This is the front yard where a giant maple tree shaded everything all day. The maple tree is long gone and now this part of the yard will be a new growing space for us. The area won’t get more than 5 or 6 hours of sun until we cut down a few trees growing in the branch to the right, but eventually we should get 7 to 8 hours. We terraced the slope with tree logs and ordered a yard and a half of top soil to fill up the area.
Yes, I know, you’re asking why the yard and a half of top soil is in front of the terraced area instead of where it’s supposed to go. Funny you should ask. The soil was delivered in a dump truck. In fact, that was one of the reasons we spent big bucks – to get a dump truck to dump the soil where it should go and save our backs. Uh-huh. Yeah. Weren’t we the lucky ones to find out the hydraulics on the truck wouldn’t raise the bed high enough to dump the soil just three tiny little feet further up the slope. Hhmmm. . . back surgery in our futures? That was a lot of work! But enough griping. We got it done.
I’ve planted a couple of black raspberries, some leftover strawberry plants and some Giant Mammoth sunflowers that are supposed to produce huge seed heads. The sunflower may not do so well until we cut a few more trees down.
I also transplanted some peonies from another spot and I’m going to put my zucchini and squash seedlings out in this bed along with a few pole beans on a homemade tripod (love that whole rustic look). Google Images is a great place to get gardening ideas like making tripods and wattle fencing.
It’s been fun trying to figure out where everything should go. Time was against us this past fall and this spring as there was sooooo much to do. As it turns out, the only beds ready for planting in March and April were those that got full sun. That means that I have cool weather crops growing where I now need to plant warm weather crops.
The peas are only just blooming – which is lovely – but I need them to “get a move on” so I can plant corn where they’re growing. I think I’ll just go ahead and plant corn in another three weeks and (hopefully) by the time it gets big the peas will be just about done. Or – even better – the corn will start to shade the peas so they keep producing in warmer weather. Anyone out there have any experience doing this?
Part of figuring out where to put stuff included “guesstimating” how much sun different areas would get. Now that the trees are fully leafed out, we gotta rethink the sweet potatoes. We need long, permanent terraces, one where the straw bale garden is now and the other in place of the two short terraced beds. But that’s a project for late summer or fall. Long story short – by next year we’ll be this much further ahead and we won’t be juggling plants and sun. At least not as much. Stay tuned!
