This is the year of the garden people. I’m putting it out there into the universe like it’s no big deal but in actuality….ITS A HUGE DEAL.
In the past, we have done some gardens. We did a veggie and herb garden the first year and it turned out great. Amazingly…you don’t need to water things for them to grow because GOD DOES IT FOR YOU. It shocked me how many delicious tomatoes and peppers and herbs we harvested. And then the following year we did it again…again…Mother Nature did her wild thang and we ate from her womb generous hands? That came out wrong but you know what I mean. We had amazingly delicious produce.
Fast forward a couple years and the garden was neglected and abandoned. I wanted to keep up with it but it was just too hard being huge and uncomfortable leaving the couch to bend over a pregnant belly and all that. We did do some container tomatoes but it wasn’t the same.
So this spring I convinced Jeremy that we need to start the big garden and then in the fall, build a coop. I talked about this plan before and I am so in love with the idea of home steading and having our big yard actually produce something and teaching the boys about how food comes from somewhere – not just the grocery store. I mean seriously I could go on and on and bore you right to sleep. In fact, if you need to take a nap – just read that intro again. It’s like the less invasive version of Ambien.
Let’s get to the photos….we had the overgrown garden – see the rosemary went a little nuts. And then Jeremy’s dad was getting rid of his raised beds so we gladly accepted those and will try to recycle the materials by tweaking them for our needs.
Jeremy was pulling up the wood and saw a snake – and if there is something you should know about Jeremy it is – he likes Crossfit, Fantasy Football, Survivor and EVERY SNAKE IS A COPPERHEAD. EVERY SPIDER IS A BROWN RECLUSE. and EVERY BOWL OF ICE CREAM IS WAY.TOO.SMALL.
We found an amazing number of critters…..two toads…
One small baby mole….
One salamander….
Two snakes and two lizards (we didn’t get a photo because apparently they can crawl out of buckets!).
After relocating the critters to new homes in the woods, we started the planning process by setting up ropes and stakes. That’s when we visited with our neighbors Larry & Charlene and lost track of time.
The next morning, we had to go right back to it….you can see that the garden is in a really unused part of the yard. It’s full sun and decent soil but it’s basically just lost yard.
The end goal is to have four beds this year and we can add a fence and shrubs and flowers around the fence later. I told Jeremy that I need big wide paths so that I can fit a wheelbarrow inside the fence and between the beds. That should help make clean up easier.
Where all that leftover fencing material is laying, that is where I want the coop eventually. I would love to have the coop enclosed and then also have the fence go around the garden and the coop area so that the chickens can keep us company when we tend to the garden.
I didn’t realize that I wanted something so big (it’s about 30×25 for the garden fenced area) but the stake and rope thing really helped me “feel the walls”. My mom always says to allow for growing room (for flowers planted along the fence)….and so this should help in the future.
The crazy rosemary plant got axed. I wish I could have saved it but Jeremy tore it up before I had a chance to veto.
The plan was that we would remove the grass because we had issues before with the grass growing into the beds. We removed it before but still – on the sides that the grass remained, it was very invasive. So I told Jeremy that we could just remove it completely then I would make his every dream come true – aka, I would cook him steak 🙂
We spray painted the lines onto the grass and Jeremy rented a sod cutter from a local place for $40 for a half a day.
That’s it right there. The sod cutter. Also known as EPIC FAILURE.
Thirty minutes to cut one strip and Jeremy’s patience got chopped down.
Yeah. And the roots aren’t even removed. So we nixed that plan and decided to go with the bigger-is-better route.
Enter the Dingo.
Jeremy called the tool rental place back and we upgraded to this bad boy. It’s basically like a little digger that you walk behind and control by pushing and pulling levers.
At first we dug up the bed and dumped it into the trailer to haul down to the woods. That’s a terrible idea by the way. Jeremy would dig it up, dump it in, haul it down, hand shovel it out, and start all over. He then just decided to walk it all down with the Dingo and it worked much better….one small load at a time.
Half way done….
Almost there…
Slowly but surely – he made it all the way to the four corners and finished it up. It wasn’t the most exciting work for Jeremy….
But these little nuggets loved watching the whole process…
Maxi Knight get’s literally SO MUCH LOVE. The big boys want to hold him constantly.
I think he gets annoyed by the affection at times. Also – Max and LJ can wear the same size now. They are like twins…except LJ is easier to hold because he is like this skinny little monkey that clings to you. Also LJ has a huge vocabulary. He says things like “Mommy, I saw a big bug and it eat me and it’s dangerous! Can I have popsicle?” It’s hilarious to hear the things in his head. Max can say Ball. At least we think he can. It might be babble. We are still trying to confirm that.
The best part of the Dingo was when Jeremy was done and the boys got to pose with it.
They LOVED this idea. I love the fact that Will is ALL him in this photo….baseball pants, star wars shirt, arm tattoos, the hole in the knee 🙂 That’s my boy right now.
Weston and his signature Capt. Morgan pose 🙂
And Max literally crawled up there by himself 🙂
The boys are my little helpers when it comes to MK’s smiles 🙂
Just look at those big ole teeth!
It looked like so much fun to pose on the Dingo….but I resisted. Nobody needs to see a grown woman posing on a piece of lawn equipment. I would never do such a thing anyway. I have more dignity than that.
So that’s it. We cleared out the grass and Jeremy used the bucket to grade it smooth. Then we raked out the remaining bits. And now we are ready for mulch and beds 🙂 and bed. because it’s exhausting to watch Jeremy work so hard 🙂
Next on the list for THE HAPPY GARDEN project –
- build and set beds
- figure out water situation
- fill beds
- plant veggies and herbs
- build fence and gates
- throw mulch
- plant flowers
- make a sign
- don’t kill everything
Well – now that you know our big spring project (oh wait – you know nothing yet. there is more. it’s kinda crazy.) what is yours? You guys start your gardens yet? Have you got those plantings in the ground? We still have to figure out the water situation with ours. We are debating if we should just get those little tiny irrigation hoses or if we need to just have the bigger soaker hoses or if we should just wait till next year to tackle that…aka..let the boys spray it with the hose. Hopefully everything will be done this month though….fingers crossed. I mean…Mama needs her tomatoes!
You should add a compost bin out there while you’re at it! Best sort of great stuff for the garden that you can ask for. As for the chickens, beyond being insanely jealous that they are in your future, you are probably going to want to put up a fence between them and your raised beds because they will trash your gardens in record time.
We built a garden space this year too! Much smaller than yours, but our yard is small. I’m maximizing our space by doing square foot gardening – we’ve already planted lots of cool-weather vegetables and things are (mostly) growing well. Here’s the raised bed we built and the chicken-wire cover to keep out rabbits and squirrels: http://www.rathersquare.com/2016/03/how-to-build-covered-raised-garden-bed/
Looks like a great start! I want some raised beds but barely keep are small little garden we have a love in the Oklahoma heat. It is so hard to grow here. Everything needs watered so much in the summer!
I would LOVE a garden like that! Do you have problems with deer? They ate almost everything of ours last year. 🙁 Oh and Jeremy’s right about the spiders. They’re all brown recluses!
Lauren Liess has some amazing pictures of the garden at her last house on her site. And progress pictures of the one they are installing at their new house. You should go take a look at the old one if you haven’t aleady seen it, it was amazing. Good Luck!
We were thinking that their coop would be fully enclosed and then a deer fence would go around the entire garden and coop. What do you think? Is that enough to protect the garden? I have done so much research but it seems like some people are pro-chicken-in-the-garden and some are against it.
xo – kb
Those chickens will eat everything in that garden!
I love those! I think you really nailed it! I love the wire covers – they look amazing!
xo – kb
We don’t as much. Our neighbors use to feed deer and so there were more but over the years we have seen less and less. Like our hostas are in the back yard and aren’t touched.
xo – kb
I love Lauren’s garden (and Lauren too – she is such a doll!) and I completely forgot about her garden so I will have to check it out 🙂
xo – kb
We just installed drip irrigation in our raised beds and will not be looking back! You can set it on a timer to water automatically and individually at the soil level based on the plant requirements. It totally cuts down on wasted water and wet leaves can sometimes bring on disease in certain plants. It looks daunting but it is so easy to put together.
I have a small yard, so my planting has been limited to planter boxes, until they died this year. I got cedar ones, but they essentially were eaten or disintegrated. Soooo, cue the 1,000 pounds of stones to build raised beds. I don’t need the gym anymore.
Hi Katie,
First of so jealous of the chickens! We live in a HOA that does not allow them….. Someday though.
I am in Phoenix AZ and keep my garden going the entire year. I have an irrigation system hooked up but I much prefer to water by hand. Every morning during the summer I go out there and hand water everything to see how each plant is doing. Cooler weather don’t need to water everyday though. Make sure to do in mornings or after sunset to avoid evaporation and burning of leaves. I agree with composting also. My son loves to see how trash and scraps turn into soil for the garden.
Best of luck!
We started a raised garden this year too! We built an “L” shaped bed and the center (where the two long beds meet at the corner) is even taller than the sides for deep root veggies. It’s a little over 100 square feet and is full of little sprouts right now :-). We’ve also bought two blueberry bushes, a raspberry bush and two banana trees! Our 4.5 and 2 year olds are SO excited about the garden and love watering and checking on their plants. I’m like you and am so excited to show them where food really comes from. Alrhough, my 4.5 year old was very disappointed that we couldn’t plant a bread tree !
Looks like it will beautiful! Another way to turn a lawn into planting beds is with newspaper and mulch, which will kill the grass and turn it into compost for the soil. However, it takes several months for the grass to break down, so it’s often something people start in the fall. Love the pics!
Our coop is enclosed but I still like to let the hens walk around the yard which is also enclosed. I’m constantly trying to keep them out of the garden during the summer! During the winter when there isn’t much going on in the garden they love hanging out in there.
Random question—
I am having so many issues with being able to view your site as it seems like it is nothing but ads and pop ups. I realize the ads are needed to generate profit in order to be able to run the blog, but I feel like lately it seems so much worse than it has ever been before. I LOVE reading your stuff and want to keep up, but it is so cumbersome that I have basically given up on many attempts. I’ve basically gone from checking the site daily, to every couple of weeks because of this. Just wondering if you’ve done something differently or if you are receiving similar feedback from others? Maybe it’s my browser?
Anyway, I LOVE everything you do and the way you come across to your readers! Thank you for all that you do! 🙂
So fun! I think let the boys water it this year. That way you can figure out where your perennials are going, how your raised beds will be laid out, etc. 🙂 Then next spring you can make just the right plan for your garden. We use a drip system we made with supplies from Home Depot that has a combination of soaker hoses and drippers and little valves to turn certain areas on and off. Sounds complicated, but it was really easy to do ourselves…and we’re not anywhere near pro diyers like y’all are!
See that is what I was thinking but Jeremy thinks that the regular soakers is easier. I just have to convince him. I like the plan of letting the boys do it so that I can better plan for coming seasons. Especially since it’s kinda a working-plan-in-progress 🙂
xo – kb
I’m sorry! I have an ad network that handles all the ads so I am sorry it’s not working. I do have one pop up – it’s for the newsletter but if you already plugged in your email then it should never show up again. If there is any other pop up – please screen shot it and send it to me so that I can nix it promptly. Sometimes it’s a simple coding error on their end. Also send along your browser info and how you are viewing to help.
Thank you so much and again – so sorry!
xo – kb
Now I am convinced that I need to compost over in that corner of the yard. You said the magic words “son loves to see….”
xo – kb
Oh man!
xo – kb
bhahahahaha!
xo – kb
We tried that before – in the front and it literally did not work even a little bit. The grass has grown through the paper and is now on top 🙁
xo – kb
The shot with sweet little LJ and the bucket is hilarious…did you catch the way the toad is standing up and looking right at the camera…
He’s all like “are you lookin’ at ME, lady!”
Yay for Dingos! My hubby is an engineer at Toro! Different department, but still exciting to see you using a Toro machine! We are thinking about using a Dingo to strip our back lawn, level it, and reseed, so it’s inspiring to see your experience using it!
Our watering system is a yard sprinkler on a post set with a timer to “rain” twice a day. So easy!
Good luck!
P.S. Chickens will eat your garden.
I would advise you to fence your chicken run in such a way that the chickens can be put to work in your garden when you want (in the spring when there are only weeds for them to destroy for you, in the fall when they can help to clean up the garden after the harvest, and in winter, when they can scratch through the beds to find bugs) or kept outside of the garden when needed. In my experience, they love to dust bathe in freshly placed mulch, take a bite out of every single ripe tomato, and trample the onions and strawberries if given half a chance. It’s also handy to have them close to the garden so that you can toss weeds to them, and once the chicken litter has composted after a coop clean-out, you can add it to the garden soil.
A fence with a gate is perfect, as long as you can keep them out of the garden when you are growing things, you should be fine! We love our girls, they have such fun personalities and help out with garden clean up in the fall/winter.
This looks like fun! We’ve loved our raised bed and learn a little bit more every year. Also, I have to ask, where did you get your activewear capris? They’re so cute!
I need to share something I found on pinterest, compost smoothies! I now take watermelon rinds, potato and orange peels… grind them up with water and dig a hole right in my flower/veggy garden between the plants! I throw the banana peels in the hole first, as my blender is not very good with stringy things 🙂 I have a little garden fairy that marks where I need to dig next!
The chickens will get into that garden and destroy it. Just be warned. Enclosed runs are great but after they destroy the ground in the run and nothing grows anymore, they need access to bugs and plants so you have to let them out for their health (not to mention food economy….) I have a lot of space and a 7-foot deer and chicken proof electric fence around my garden and they STILL get in there and dig it up. Also all of my flower beds. Oh and they come all the way to the house and poop on my decks LOL
Just to add on to this and your reply, I subscribed to your newsletter and still get that pop up every time I come here. Sad face 🙁
Oh this made me tired. Where do you get your energy!!! It will be so fun for those babies when things start growing!!
Do you really? I will check that. So sorry for any inconvenience.
xo – kb
haha! Walmart of all places 🙂
xo – kb
Yup, chickens can work FOR you with clean up, but definitely will destroy a lot as well. If you look up chicken tractors, I’m sure you can find suitable inspiration for creating a movable pen that would allow the chickens to work where you want them to and leave everything else alone.
YES, yes, yes – to compost bins! Build at least 3! One for composting chicken poop alone (it needs 6 months to break down, otherwise it will kill your plants), and 1 – 2 for rotating around. I am a busy mama of little ones and I practice “lasagne style” composting. We just throw in our kitchen scraps and all the oodles of paper/cardboard that the kids go through, and once a week, I top it up with a layer of rubbishy soil that we have plenty of. Whenever I’m pulling waste from the garden (not weeds, because they can release seeds if your compost isn’t properly ratio-ed and I’m too busy for that), I throw that in too. It takes 5 or so months for those layers to turn into the richest, best compost that makes the garden go crazy. We also throw in some of our grass clippings from the lawn but a lot of that goes to the chickens to keep them happy too.
We made a very ugly but effective worm farm from an old laundry sink that we pulled out in a renovation. The worms also churn over some of our scraps, they make the most fantastic soil for seedlings and sick plants, and we occasionally a few worms to the chickens. And … the kids love a worm farm!
So many ways to use all the bits and pieces to make things productive and healthy 🙂
Good luck – looks like you’re off to a good start!
You can keep your garden beds almost weed free by putting down newspaper first and then topping that with mulch. It really does help….
A THICK layer of mulch!
Love this!! Every year we say we are going to do this but still haven’t yet. We have a ton of deer in our yard so we need to build a fence with a door. Not sure if you read Ashley’s blog. She has become crazy about her new chickens and building a chicken coop.
http://www.lilblueboo.com/2016/05/chicken-run-progress.html
Hi Katie,
Same here. I have put in my email more than once, not only the pop up keeps coming back, I didn’t receive anything from Bower Power in my email. 🙁
Hi Joan,
When did you put in your email? The newsletter gets sent out weekly so you may have just missed it. If you don’t receive it by next Wednesday, please let me know! I’m so sorry for any inconvenience….I know that it’s annoying!
xo – kb
We are also putting in a big garden this year, but it is for shrubs and flowers, not vegetables (we don’t get enough sun, unfortunately). I didn’t think it would take that long to cover the area with mulch… I was wrong. But I’m hoping to get it finished up this weekend so we can get to the fun part (the plants!).
I love your garden area and am interested to see the chicken coop!
Mee toooooo! I can not wait!
xo – kb
Looking good so far. I can’t wait until the day we get a house and start our own garden.
Do you ever read Under the Sycamore? If you don’t, you need to. They have the cutest chicken coop and garden… also, everything else she shares is really great too.
Yes! I love their coop! And her photography. I love that she embraces the camera SO hard.
xo – kb