Garden Expansion Project: More is Better

Before

 

The first spring we moved here, as my birthday present, my husband built this beautiful terraced garden for me on our back slope.

 

Then he decided to expand it on around by several feet.

I was not complaining!

I just planted all my spring veggies on the right side so they wouldn't get smashed in the process.

No problem!

 

We had the blocks delivered last fall.

 

With our clay soil, figuring out the best time to dig is a bit tricky.

If you dig too early in the spring, you get mud that sticks to your shovel, and your shoes, and your pants, and doesn't come off.

On the other hand, if you wait too long for it all to dry out, then it's baked hard and you either need a pickaxe (backbreaking slow way) or a tractor (fast but expensive way) to get it done.

So he started digging here after roughly equal amounts of rain and dry last month.

It was just about right. 

The ground was soft enough for a shovel, but as you can see, it filled in with water the deeper he dug.

Can you see why we like our raised beds?



forming the base of the wall

 

looking down from the middle terrace

Filling it up with gravel for the base takes care of the extra water.

 

April 28

Bottom terrace complete, except for a few cap blocks.

Working on middle and top terraces.

The green clump of oregano in the middle of the bottom terrace is where the garden used to end.

 

After

May 21

Expansion complete...for now.

We're getting dirt delivered to fill it up this weekend!

I've got tomatoes ready and waiting to go in.

 

This man of mine just can't get enough wall-building!

He had a tractor back there helping our neighbor build a retaining wall.

He decided that rest of the hillside was an eyesore anyway, so he went ahead and scooped out dirt for the garden beds to be expanded all the way to our fence line.

 

It is truly the never-ending wall project!

Phase 3 will probably not take place until fall, at the earliest, though.

 

I can think of all kinds of things to grow in it.

We may actually have room for pumpkins! Winter squash! Corn!

 

When it comes to garden space, more is better.

That's all.