Here’s a tiny project: decorate with some found art. I found this at the farm (aka my parent’s house.) My dad pieced it together.
It’s an old weather vane arrow installed on a lightening rod stand. It gives my back yard that shabby chic touch that it needed! (It’s plenty shabby, our back yard, but now it’s a bit chic as well. Hah!) It looks really nice now that it’s backdrop, the roses, are blooming.
When I started contemplating turning part of our back yard into a garden, in my mind the biggest challenge would be managing the grass (ahem, weeds) that grow back there. A few raised beds seemed like a good option for keeping weeds out and for controlling soil quality. Queue the big plans!
Plan in hand, I priced lumber and dirt. Ouch. We’re on a budget, folks. I’d need about $35 worth of lumber per bed. Plus dirt costs. Then seeds or plants on top of that. And mulch. All of the sudden, each bed became nearly a $100 proposition.
What to do? We decided to move ahead with one raised bed and to just plant the other stuff in the ground. Come fall, maybe we’ll put in another raised bed (or maybe we’ll have to save up until next spring.)
So I bought lumber and hired my husband to put it together:
We used this plan as a jumping off point. There are a million different kinds of raised beds. You can buy corner brackets that let you avoid fiddling with deck screws and corners. You can buy entire kits with all of the parts. There’s a solution for pretty much everyone.
Regarding lumber: we made a controversial choice. We used pressure treated lumber. I know, I know, we’re all going to die. I did a ton of research about this. One choice is to use un-treated lumber and know that it’s going to rot away sooner. Another is to use pressure treated and hope for the best. We let it sit out on the patio for a while (hoping the worst of it’s horrible-ness would seep away in the first few rains). New pressure treated wood has a different set of chemicals (that will still probably kill us) than did old pressure treated wood. Feel free to judge and/or not eat my produce.
What’s going into this bed? My herb garden!
True story: I started a ton of herbs in the house from seed. They grew up to be a little weak looking but I put them outside anyway. They all died. That’s partly due to our crazy weather this year and partly due to my lack of skill in this department. So I took myself down to the store and bought plants, budget be damned. Here they are in all of their glory:
I transplanted my mint and rosemary from pots on my front porch. Everything else I purchased this year. I can expect most of it (pretty much everything but the basil) to overwinter and be a perennial here (I think.)
Oregano, thyme, basil, parsley (two kinds), sage (various varieties), mint, rosemary, lavender, chamomile, and dill live in this box. I also have chives and cilantro growing in the bed next door (which I hope next year to make into a greens and herbs box as well.)
I’m so excited. It’s steps from my back door. It’s going to smell FANTASTIC as those herbs grow. I’m itching to create my own chamomile and lavender tea instead of having to buy it at Whole Foods for one million dollars.
Here’s a shot of the raised bed and it’s neighbors:
You can see the raised bed in the foreground, then two other beds and then a fourth lump of dirt. What’s that? It’s the bed I dug when our friend gave us free lumber for another raised bed!
The lumber was free but the dirt to fill it would not have been. We opted to build it, plant in it, and fill it later. It is untreated lumber but I think it has a few years of use left in it. Having the extra bed is an unexpected boon. It’s turned out to be my experimental garden bed. It’s housing our impulse plantings (so far – two varieties of onions and some more radishes but there’s room for more!) I’m taking suggestions – zucchini maybe?
Four beds + an asparagus bed = my spring garden. I’m so pleased with our progress. I’d love to know what you, dear reader, have planted (or dreamed of planting) this year.
A while back, I proudly showed off the three graves garden beds I dug back at the beginning of April. Then I provided proof that I’d actually planted something in them. Done, right? I just put up my feet and wait for harvest time. Uh, not so much. This project has grown. Literally.
About two days after I proclaimed, “I’m never digging another garden bed ever!” we got an enticing offer. A friend is moving and she opted not to move her garden with her. She asked if we’d like to transplant some of it to our garden. Free plants? Sign me up!
She offered us two very cool things. One: we could have her raised garden bed materials if we’d dismantle the ones in her yard and haul them off. Two: she had 5-year-old asparagus plants that we could dig up and take with us. It was an incredibly generous offer and we’re so thankful she thought of us. It also meant suddenly my three garden beds became five. Yikes!
I’m sure our neighbors think we’re nuts. We’re always doing things like darting off in the truck on a Monday night and returning in the dark with a load like this:
That’s a bunch of dirty lumber and trash-bagged asparagus plants. I felt like some kind of vegetable smuggler. Bright and early the next morning, I started digging them a home.
This garden bed is waaay out by the fence. Don’t worry – I measured to make sure my watering hose reached there before I dug it up. (This post has a sketch of the back yard that might help you understand where this is….it’s way back by the alley fence.) It’s been my plan all along that asparagus would someday go out by the fence. I just had no idea it would happen this year!
We weren’t sure how the asparagus would handle the transplant but it performed like a champ. These Jersey Knights shot right up and tasted GREAT. We had a beautiful few weeks of chomping on fresh asparagus with eggs in the morning.
Long before I was tired of chowing down on asparagus, the plants started showing signs of stress (it only makes sense, really…they were literally uprooted from their comfy homes and thrown into my yard.) They started sending up really, really skinny stalks. Their former owner (and gardener extraordinaire!) had warned us about this. In an attempt to allow them to rest up for a better harvest next year, we let the plants fern out.
Asparagus takes several years to establish but can last for decades. It’s a test of patience – you plant roots and then wait at least a year (or two!) before you get to harvest any asparagus. We’re so excited that these guys are ours now and that we got the instant gratification of eating a few spears this spring.
*Bloggin’ note*
I bet you wondered if our little square of 1500sqft heaven blew away in the wild, Oklahoma spring wind. Honestly, it’s just been BUSY (and batty!) around here and writing posts fell by the wayside. I think it’s time to get back on the wagon, don’t you? I missed chatting with you! I’ll catch y’all up on what’s been going on (gardening and grousing about the weather, mostly) and then we’ll move forward toward summer (and some new projects!) together.
*end note*
Well, one excuse for being a slow blogger is being really, really busy working on projects. That’s totally part of my excuse. Also, I’ve lost countless hours of sleep, years off of my life, and a tank of gas to the BAT we encountered in our bedroom this past weekend!
Yeah, you read that right. I woke up Saturday night to the frantic flapping of a wild beast in our bedroom. I thought it was a bird but since I fled the room without my glasses (best argument for Lasik I’ve encountered so far…) my opinion couldn’t be trusted. Jason remained much calmer, put on his spectacles, and identified it as a bat. Ewwwww!
Here’s the abbreviated version of batty events:
WHEW!
Photo Credit: Jason Sherman (cause I was so not in the mood to take photos…)
A few parting thoughts:
We don’t know how the bat got in. It’s likely it was through our screen door (which was malfunctioning after the crazy storms we had earlier in the week) or a faulty screen in our kitchen window. Those issues have both been addressed. The windy, wild storms might have been what caused the animal to end up in our house – apparently that can happen.
There appears to have only been one bat. If we had a whole attic full (EEK!) we’d have to find someone to deal with that.
If a bat flies in to your house and you know it didn’t scratch or bite you, just open a window and it will fly out. If that doesn’t work, you might have to put it in a container and take it outside. If you search online for “get a bat out of your house” a zillion results show up so at least I know this happens to other people as well.
If you were asleep, or if you have a child or person in your home who could not communicate that they’d been scratched or bitten, you should try to have the bat tested for rabies if you can. Luckily we live only about an hour away from the state health department, so we just hauled in our little flying rat ourselves. They tested it for free. And they bleached out our cooler and gave it back. Cold soda anyone?
Thus ends the saga of the bat…we hope. We’ve subsequently had a few nights of twitchy sleep but so far, no more bats!
Why such sporadic blog posts? I’ve been living in the back yard. Seriously, I don’t sleep there (yet), but I’ve spent the majority of my waking time there – digging, transplanting, building, re-arranging, and getting my spring tan on. (Kids, don’t tan. It’s bad for you.)
We created a plan for how we want to use the space in our back yard, and I jumped right into being a vegetable gardener by digging several 8 foot by 4 foot garden beds. Next up? Putting some actual plants into the ground.
Here’s the part where it could get sorta messy. My tendency is to have a great big plan and then to get tired of executing it about half way through. However, I was determined not to give in to my laziness this time. My goals for this year, my inaugural vegetable garden year, are to:
So in the interest of keeping track of my veggies, I did this with some twine and some nails:
Those square foot boxes correspond to this:
How’d I decide what to plant? I talked about that a little bit here, but mostly it was reading up on what likes (or is willing) to live in Oklahoma and isn’t too high maintenance. The final (ish) list follows.
Veggies:
I started some plants from seed in the house (mostly the things that will go in my herb garden), planted some seeds directly outside, and purchased a few plants that were already started. I’m trying to figure out what’s most cost effective and time efficient. Here’s proof that I actually put plants in the ground:
Why do some of those boxes still look empty? I’m going to sew the lettuce and spinach seeds in succession (so a few square feet the first week, a few the second, and so on…) in hopes of not having one big salad and then nothing. I bought varieties that claimed to be more heat tolerant than others. We shall see!
This all seems seems like plenty to keep track of, especially for a girl who has grown a few tomatoes but nothing else. However, this garden has taken on a life of it’s own. More on that later this week. I’ll give you a hint…it involves a truck bed full of awesomeness and lots. more. digging.
p.s. Just to make sure I was on my gardening toes, a few days after I planted there was a big ol’ chance of hail and a freeze so I had to do run around and cover everything. Luckily, we didn’t get much hail and everything seemed to survive the blast of cold.
Quick note: Just yesterday it was 77 degrees. Today it’s 33 and there’s freezing rain and a chance for snow. Oklahoma – as a lifelong resident I’m supposed to be nonchalant about your weather craziness but you’re freaking me out this year.
Fan Fleet Inspection Day:
We added two new fans to our fleet this year (in anticipation of the fact that we’re going to delay running the AC for as long as possible.) We bought the big round guy (it’s LOUD but Jason loves it) and the pretty brushed nickel one.
I found that our Atwoods Farm & Ranch store had the best prices on sturdy fans (with Amazon as a close second) so check out your local equivalent (Farm and Fleet, Tractor Supply Co., whatever y’all have on the coasts…) If you love vintage fans, check Ebay (search “vintage oscillating fans”) or garage sales. We picked up the vintage Westinghouse fan for less than $10 at a yard sale. There are some trade offs – this one no longer oscillates (Jason could fix it but it would require tracking down some old gear parts) and you should be aware that often old fans run hotter than new fans.
Scared of real vintage? There are good choices for old timey looking fans (like my turquoise metal fan I scored at Wal-Mart about 5 years ago) at big box stores. Seriously, snatch them up early – they tend to sell out as it gets warmer.
Here’s to a breezy, easy spring and summer! Happy Fan Fleet Inspection Day!
Spurred by my own long-winded tale about procrastinating about paint, I went to have some of our favorite paint mixed at our favorite place to have paint mixed. I walked in and found out that since my last visit (less than a month ago) ALL of their paints have been reformulated. I didn’t let that scare me too much, though I was surprised.
I asked for a sample color-sized can of my new color I wanted to try. Easy enough, right? Well, I wouldn’t be telling you about it if there wasn’t some kind of snafu. The brand new paint shaker machine CRUSHED THE CAN and shot sage paint all over the inside of said brand new paint shaker machine. I thought the paint lady was going to cry. Possibly she did after I left. I’m thinking it might be time to find a new favorite kind of paint/place to have paint mixed.
The weather has been too nice to stay inside and blog. Big updates from the back yard coming soon!