The Garden - Part 1

For 10 years in Frisco, I always wanted to put in a garden.  Once I figured out that I didn't really need a lot of space for a garden (I'd always envisioned this massive garden like my Grandmother in Washington had in her back yard.) we kept thinking we were going to move soon and I didn't want to invest in all the work a garden would entail.  I grew some potted tomatoes for a couple of years on the patio, but never put in a "real" garden. As soon as we started building this house here which has about 4 times as much yard, and laid out so much better (a rectangle and not a 10-sided u-shaped polygon) I knew I wanted a real garden.  So, while in the building process I started my research....aka....Pinterest!  I knew getting anything done the first year was going to be tough, especially since we moved in about 9 months later than we thought. We moved into the house in early May...way to late to start something outside, and plus, we had way to many "projects" that were far above this one on the "to-do" list.  But this year I didn't let it go undone.  I had a plan and was ready to put it into action!  I decided to do something like a Square Foot Garden.   It didn't take up a lot of space and seemed pretty fool-proof (we will see).

We determined that this little section of yard near the back door would work great.   We were trying to decide between this spot and one closer to the water hose, but decided on this one because the other one was kind of in an open space where the kids play.  If we decide to add more boxes later the other side of the porch would start taking up more usable yard space.  So we went with this side.  We have big drainage issues in our backyard.  You can sort of see the little gray line in the grass where the builder laid a french drain.  It helps.  But the ground on the upside of this drain is a MESS!!  We needed the garden to drain so we decided to put it just to the side of this drain line.

I headed to Lowe's to pick up my wood so we could build our garden box.   I wasn't building an exact box like Mel recommends, so I needed to get some different supplies.  Lowe's couldn't cut a corner post for me so I had to improvise while wandering around the store pushing a big cart of wood!!  Anyways, Shannon, and both kids, helped assemble the box bed with the supplies I'd brought home.

The kids were anxious to help.  Reagan was a little TOO anxious at times while I was digging out the grass, so Daddy found a nice distraction for her!

This is the box we ended up creating!

Once we finished the box, and I dug out all the grass, we laid down the weed barrier and moved the box over!  We had dirt delivered today so I'm anxious to get the garden "put together" tonight and tomorrow if the rain will cooperate!!

The dirt....I mentioned the dirt came today.  Well, last week Shannon found a guy who said he could deliver a topsoil/compost mix on Wednesday of this week.  We never heard from him again!  So today we called Rocky's, who came as a strong recommendation from the place Shannon has been getting all his lawn supplies.  Trying to shop local and support our neighbors.  Disappointed in our last dirt supplier I called Rocky's this morning and asked if they could deliver 2 yards of mixed soil compost today or tomorrow since we had planned to spend the weekend working in the yard. The man said he was about to make a run not to far from here so he could bring it by in about an hour.  DEAL!!  When the lady got here with the dump truck she backed it up our driveway and began to dump the load.  There was a divider in the bed of the dump truck that was separating our load (2 yards) from her second run (6 yards).  That little divider failed to do it's job and well, let's just say we have a LOT of dirt!!  

About 30 minutes after this HUGE pile of dirt was dropped in our driveway it started to rain.  We grabbed a tarp and covered what we could....which wasn't much.  We have a huge muddy mess in our driveway now!  Going to make hauling that dirt around the yard tomorrow much more difficult!  

Oh, and if you need dirt (mud)....let us know, we have some to spare!!

I'll keep you posted on the progress of the garden!!