My Garden Makeover

Five years ago, Steve and I bought a fixer-upper in the heart of downtown Kannapolis because of its wonderful location and lot. I remember telling Steve that, "I can fix an ugly interior, but I can't fix a neighborhood or the lot." Thus, we settled on our ranch 'fixer-upper' with an awesome back lot!

This back lot was large enough for us to plant three apple trees, create a 40 X 40 garden, and still have a lot of open green space for future soccer games or baseball diamonds.

Currently, our garden is organized into long rows about two feet wide with about two feet between each row.  The area between the rows never stays clean and by the end of each summer, it is so full of weeds and grass that it is hard to walk through.

I recently read a new book which has inspired me to redesign my garden. The best part about this makeover is that by re-purposing junk I have found from previous owners, and items I have collected from my grand-parents' yards, this project will only cost = elbow grease!

The Complete Kitchen Garden by Ellen Ecker Ogden is the book I purchased for guidance. I found a used copy online for $4.00, but it is also available at Williams Sonoma.

Last week, with the help of my sister in-law Leslie, I measured out the garden and marked it off with landscaper's paint.

I marked off six 8 X 8 boxes with two feet rows on the exterior and four feet of walk paths between all the areas.

I cleaned out the first 8 X 8 box this week because I need to go ahead and plant a second round of bush beans, and start my carrot and spinach seeds for the fall.

The challenge will be to keep the grass and weeds under control in the walking paths. I found this article on Pintrest and will try to start creating this fall:

"The newspaper will prevent any grass and weed seeds from germinating, but unlike fabric, it will decompose after about 18 months. By that time, any grass and weed seeds that were present in the soil on planting will be dead. It’s green, it’s cheaper than fabric, and when you decide to remove or redesign the bed later on, you will not have the headache you would with fabric."

In my new design, I have also allowed for a large open space in the middle where I hope to use my grand-parents' old picnic table.

Perhaps if I can actually keep the weeds down I'll actually want to eat in the garden.

I also have this set from my other grand-parents' house in South Carolina that would look nice in one of the four foot paths.

Finally, I am going to decorate and create an enchanting place to visit with crap I have found from previous owners.

I'm not quite sure what these were used for, but I found two corner fences.  Maybe the previous owner used them to stack their wood pile?

Underneath all of the poison ivy are a collection of cement pavers and bricks that would be perfect to add to the walking paths.  However, I am going to wait till the winter to grab them. I already got one bad case of poison ivy two weeks ago when I was moving the fencing in the previous picture. I don't want to go back to that!

I'll keep you posted as the fall progresses!

Bree