Shared Backyard Garden

Discussion in 'Members' Systems' started by Farside, May 22, 2013.

  1. Farside

    Farside Junior Member

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    Hi all,

    We are renting a small place with no room or permission for a garden so this year we decided to do something about it and found a garden through this site:
    https://www.sharingbackyards.com/

    The land is owned by someone who can't use it for some reason and would like someone else to use the space. In our case, the garden is quite a sizable area.
     
  2. Farside

    Farside Junior Member

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    Here is a picture of the garden when we first went to look at it. We live in a zone 3/4 area and this was taken at the beginning of May
    View attachment 1616
     

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  3. Farside

    Farside Junior Member

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    These were taken on May 20th after a long weekend of digging and planting seed in the rain. It rained very heavily and there is extensive flooding around town.
    Things are a wee bit muddy right now...

    The garden is basically a double keyhole raised bed system. The driveway runs along the Northern side.
    View attachment 1621
    I'm using runoff from the right of way to irrigate my garden beds ;)
    View attachment 1620
    Here is the same angle as the original:
    View attachment 1622
     

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  4. Farside

    Farside Junior Member

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    So far we've planted:
    Sunflowers
    Sweetcorn and Popcorn
    Snowpeas, Bush Beans, Red Kidney Beans, Black Beans, Fava Beans
    Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower
    Lettuce, Spinach, Swiss Chard
    Carrots, Multi-colored Carrots, Parsnips, Radishes, Beets
    Leeks, Chives
    Red Peppers, Thai Chili
    Tomatoes
    Cucumbers, Zucchini, Squash
    Dill, Oregano, Rosemary, Basil, Italian Parsley
    Einkorn Wheat, Pacific Blue Stem Wheat
    Hana Barley, Golden Promise Barley

    In a few weeks we'll be planting:
    Beans under the corn and sunflowers
    Comfrey, Borage, Lovage, Sorrel, Marigold, Echinacea, Wormwood (borders)
     
  5. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Nice! Great idea taking the water runoff and diverting it.
     
  6. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    What a wonderful idea.
    I had heard of this but you are the first person that I've seen actually do it.
    Hope it goes well, looks really good so far.
     
  7. Farside

    Farside Junior Member

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    Here is a footprint of the garden I made on the computer as the photos don't really show the layout all that well:
    View attachment 1623

    This is how it turned out.
    It wasn't how I originally planned it. It turned out that the area isn't as rectangular as I originally thought and I paced out two sides of the "rectangle", assuming 1 meter per pace for my initial measurements.

    Here is my original plan:
    View attachment 1624

    As you can see, there was some improvisation necessary :D
     

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  8. Farside

    Farside Junior Member

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    As the garden has steep slopes, so there is a sunny and shady side to every bed. In order to help with the planting plan, I added some contours:
    View attachment 1625

    Then I added some planting regions:
    View attachment 1626

    It was pouring with rain, there were two of us planting, and we had two small children creating chaos... Needless to say, we forgot where we planted everything.

    Anyway, I filled in the blanks as best I could but the scanned image is too big to post in this forum.

    While I was digging, the old lady next door came out to see what all the earth moving was all about. I explained why I was going to all this trouble to put in the garden and the benefits of such a design. By the look of sympathy on her face, I suspect she thinks I'm a few sandwiches short of a picnic LOL.

    The land owner also came out briefly to check that I wasn't burying a body or two...
     

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  9. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Won't it be nice to be able to give the neighbour a few tomatoes to go in that sandwich with a smile on your face in a few months....
     
  10. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    She will have a lightbulb moment when she notices how much more watering she is doing .
     
  11. Farside

    Farside Junior Member

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    We're still getting frosts here and the seedlings will be popping up shortly so this weekend I laid down some dried grass clippings as mulch to protect them as well as the soil.
    View attachment 1649

    View attachment 1650
     

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  12. Farside

    Farside Junior Member

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    Well I went to the garden today to turn the compost and found that the wind had blown a lot of the mulch away. So I had to reapply it and wet it down again. We have 3 days of rain on the way so hopefully it'll stay put this time.

    The wheat and barley are up, but that is all. It's 10 days in and I would have expected a bit more activity...
     

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