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Friday Favorite: New Garden Areas

January 2nd, 2015

There’s something exciting about new garden areas, even if they are only an extension of another garden area. For the past two years I’ve been mulling over my plan for the main garden back behind the garage. As I work I look at the surrounding areas, the lay of the land, the trees, etc. I plan out where access roads/paths will be, where hedges will be planted and where drainage ditches will need dug. All of these plans lay in the future, a few years down the line, but that doesn’t mean that I can start preparing. The garden in the back needs expanded quite a bit to make way for perennial borders, fences, and hedges. The pigs have helped greatly in tilling up the sod to make way for these new gardens. Now that they are finished with their work I set to work laying down cardboard with a this layer of compost.
new garden area
In the spring they will be over seeded with various cover crops that will be mowed down for a weed smothering mulch. It’s a slow process, this garden will take more than a decade to become what I see in my mind. The slow, steady process of reaching that goal is fulfilling, and it helps me learn to be patient. There is such new promise in a new garden bed, one that has only grown sod. The possibilities are endless and that’s what I’m loving right now. I just need to remind myself that it’s a slow process, because admittedly it can be disheartening at times when you left behind a place that was just reaching it’s full potential and are starting all over again. I have to relish the newness and the possibilities!

Do you have plans to expand your gardens this coming year? 

5 Comments to “Friday Favorite: New Garden Areas”
  1. Robin Follette on January 2, 2015 at 7:56 am

    I’m downsizing the vegetable garden again and concentrating on the perennial flowers and future flower gardens. I’ll be glad when it snows and overs the cardboard lying out in plain view.

    Reply to Robin Follette's comment

  2. Laura on January 2, 2015 at 9:56 am

    Started a shade garden by my rain barrel 2 years ago. It is such a slow process!! I admit I did not spend the time on it I would have liked to last year. It will be my main focus this year.

    Reply to Laura's comment

  3. bonnie knox on January 2, 2015 at 12:10 pm

    Do you have a good source for used cardboard or do you just use what happens to come your way?

    Reply to bonnie knox's comment

  4. Charlie@Seattle Trekker on January 2, 2015 at 2:52 pm

    A great beginning to such a grand adventure.

    Reply to Charlie@Seattle Trekker's comment

  5. Nebraska Dave on January 3, 2015 at 11:02 am

    Susy, I do have plans of garden expansion. I have an eye on another foreclosed property to purchase. This one would be just for some time in the future. It’s an elevated flat vacant lot that needs a lot of tree clean up to allow light on to the property. This property is 40 by 138 feet. It has a bank on the street end with concrete steps leading up to the elevated property. It appears to be relatively junk free and wouldn’t take much to turn it into a source of chemical free green manure from mowing. At Terra Nova Gardens, a property to the south of mine is another dialect vacant lot. The owner lives in Wyoming and doesn’t really take care of the lot. Each year I creep a little more into that property with weed control and critter garden. My hope is to keep them away from testing my garden fence when I get it finished.

    Have a great garden expansion day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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