My New Kitchen Garden

This year I decided to move my kitchen garden from the Back 40 to my front yard so it will be more accessible when I'm cooking. Our home is the last house on a dead end street, so I had not problem picking the front corner of the yard for this new garden. This plot will get full sun for most of the day and will make watering and other maintenance easier.

The first thing I did was lay out the 12 x 12 foot plot.




Then I moved several old tires to line the perimeter between the veggie garden and the perennial border. I will use the tires for my compost heaps and to start cuttings of shrubs, roses and other plants. The black frame in the background is an old futon - when I add the cushions it becomes my garden settee.


Because I want this to be a natural garden, I did not use any weed killers or poisons to kill the lawn. Instead, I layer thick pads of newspaper on top of the grass within the garden. The newspaper will kill the weeds, attracts beneficial worms and will decompose within a few months to enrich the soil. Vegetable roots will be able to easily penetrate the newspaper as they begin to grow.


I then hauled several wheel barrels of bark mulch to cover the newspaper. The mulch is almost 18 months old and it started as trees that Kentucky Utilities trimmed back in the winter of 2007. It is now rich, crumbly goodness that the veggies will love.


In a few days, I'll post a few more photos. As I have been planting the spring garden, I've been adding garden soil on top of the mulch and nestling the plants in snug. I'm then using straw to cover the soil and help protect the veggies.

Mulch Madness

Too Old to Pull the Plow, Too Young to Die

During the spring of the year is the time I realize I am totally out of shape. After spending the dark months cocooned in relative warmth and comfort, the spring is bringing rebirth.

The problem comes when I decide I can't wait another minute to begin working in the yard - too much to do, not enough time. I am still working on a huge pile of shredded bark in my front yard, moving it from the pile to different areas of my gardens. This pile is now just over a year old because I in no way, shape or form was able to move as much as I wanted to last year.

Why, you may ask? Well - and that's a deep hole in the ground - my plans seem to be bigger than my muscle power. I work mornings and then write all afternoon, so I don't have much spare time, especially during fall and winter when it's dark before 6 o'clock and too cold to work outside. But spring brings us daylight savings time and warmth, so by 5 each afternoon, I'm ready to hit the yard - or rather, the mulch pile.

Ah, but here comes the problems again - after shoveling up and moving 2 wheel barrels full of mulch, my out-of-shape body is screaming, "Please, for God's sake, no more!" I have to stop and rest for at least 15-20 minutes before making another attempt. Attempt number 2 amounts to 2 more wheel barrels of mulch, but the recovery time is twice as long. After 30-45 minutes of rest time, I have to get up and start supper and while supper is cooking, I may get 1 or 2 more wheel barrels moved before calling it a day.

Five wheel barrels a day, 6 if I'm lucky - at the rate I'm going, I may be finished in a year or two. Ah, but here comes another problem - no matter how many wheel barrels I've already moved this spring - and at last count it was 21 and yes, I'm keeping count because I'm anal like that - I am slow to see progress in the gardens, not to mention the size of the mulch pile.

Oh, and did I mention I still have tree limbs to move from the ice storm a few months ago? And dead growth to cut out and remove from the flower beds? And a garden to till up? And, please God, let me make it to April before I have to mow the yard for the first time. And the house needs repairs ...

Edited at 6:30 (I moved 10 wheel barrels of mulch today!!)

Rain Today

Raining today, so I was only able to move 2 wheel barrels of mulch today. I'm not complaining because we really need the rain. I've set up another trashcan in the front garden to collect rain water. I'll keep the lid on it during the summer to prevent mosquitoes from breeding. These "rain cans" make it easy to water plants without having to pull out the waterhose. This one is a RubberMaid can found on clearance - the best way to buy things!

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