My Garden Project Day 1

This is what my garden looked like in 2005. I grew strawberries, raspberries, onions, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes that year. Then next year I took a second job and for the next 3 years I worked both jobs 65 to 70 hours a week and was always tired and had nothing to show for it. Then I made feeble attempts at gardening with poor results. My goal this year is to reclaim my garden by keeping the dogs out of it. I had a wire fence but it allowed the little dogs to go thru and the big dogs figured out how to get over it by pushing it down until they could jump over. My dogs loved the raised beds and liked to dig in the cool soft dirt until they had great hollows to lay in. Any bushes got pruned including my grapes that after 6 years are still mere stubs poking out of the ground.


This is what my garden looked like this morning a wet muddy mess. So with Shirley and Scott's help, I have a brand spanking new shiney dog proof fence.


My yard slopes to the middle, so even after no rain for a couple of days, I still have standing water. My plan is to take apart the boxes so I can stack the wood out of the way and level the middle of the garden. I don't mind a sloping yard, I just don't want the lowest area to be smack dab in the middle.


Here it is with the all boxes removed.


Here are the boards that I used to walk on to be able to feed my rabbits without getting my feet wet. By the way, there's my hammer that I used to build my house, its still awesome.


I dug two shallow trenches, one along the new garden fence to drain the standing water from the pavers. This one is to drain the standing water that was in the beds. I need to dig this area anyways because I'm changing the placement of the raised boxes and need to dig out up and move the water supply lines.