Garden Upgrades 2019, Part 2

Let me start by saying that I have had mixed feelings about my veggie garden, pretty much since I put the first beds in six years ago. Because, first of all, this was not supposed to be a six year project.

Also, every single year some part of the garden looks like this…

2014

2015

2016

2017

If you’re noticing a theme of OVERGROWN WEEDS here… yeah. Every single year, there’s some part of the garden that is absolutely out of control.

But earlier this year I dedicated a lot of my nights and weekends to turning this…

Into this…

And this…

Into this…

Originally I was going to use the back of the garden for “row crops”, but I’ve found that raised beds with gravel paths are basically the only way to keep the garden manageable, so that’s what we’re going with. Everywhere.

I had a couple of espalier fruit trees planted in the back section of the garden this year as well, and I’m in the process of adding brick around them to help terrace the gravel appropriately since this whole thing is built on a hill.

I’d say the garden is now mostly under control (with a few wild spots in the corners), and since we’ve had more days of rain than not this year, everything is growing like mad.

The garden in March:

The garden in July:

Also, in exciting news, the lids for my strawberry beds worked wonders:

I actually had enough berries this year to attempt to make my grandmothers recipe for strawberry jam.

It’s not as good as my grandmas… but still pretty damn good.

I also got a decent garlic harvest and more potatoes than I know what to do with…

And we’re moving into the season of tomatoes, corn, blackberries, and zucchini. The garden isn’t “done” by any means, and it’s time to turn my attention to bigger projects at the farm (residing the back of the house) and the lake (rebuilding my mom’s deck), but I have to say it’s looking pretty damn good this year.

Definitely worth the last six years of effort!

 

Article reference Garden Upgrades 2019, Part 2