Our house came with a yard, a giant neglected flower bed and the magical ability to make me want to do manual labor. I am hoping to turn just a part of the overgrown bed into a vegetable garden this year.
I have no idea what I am doing at all! I have done some online research, bought myself two books and am going to try to remember that my veggie garden will be fun if not functional.
So far, I've planned learned what zone we're in (zone 6), made a list of vegetables we will actually eat, reminded myself multiple times that a first time gardener will be Just Fine with a 3x5 space. I am worried about the amount of sun the spot may get in the middle of summer, since I forgot to look up as I started all this work.
And, since what everyone seems to agree on, if nothing else, is that vegetables need sun. I really hope that there is enough sun in the little spot I've picked. Just in case there isn't, I am also going to do a small 3x6 raised bed garden in a different spot.
Until we build the raised bed (next weekend?), I started to clean the dirt.
Yup, cleaning the dirt. These flower beds have been neglected for about 10 years, according to our Neighbor Tom. They are full of these:
which have giant root systems:
I am digging out the entire plot, pulling these nameless plants out, removing rocks, acorns and other stuff. I am leaving the earthworms. In order to make sure the dirt is really clean, I actually ordered a garden sieve yesterday.
So, consider yourself warned: No matter how the garden grows, it's going to be dirty. Heh.
2 comments:
You can do it
Veggies need 6-8 hours of sun a day. You might really want to think about the location -- it would be a shame to put that much effort in and not get veggies. Raised bed is great -- make sure you get good soil (or soil and compost) to fill it. Also, are you sure those aren't flowers of some sort? They look like tulips or iris, and I'd imagine that they're naturalizing (hence insane number of them!) Good luck -- looks like a great project.
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