Backyard: Herb and Vegetable Garden 2010

Two weeks ago Nate and I were finally able to tackle the backyard - and all its problems. One of the basic changes we wanted to make between last year and this year's layout was the placement and shape of the herb garden. Last year I documented the building of the herb spiral. The spiral had a couple of faults that became apparent after two or three months of use:
1. We had placed the spiral in a part of the yard that was too shaded by the live oak. Most of the herbs planted never got enough sunlight and died after two months of struggling.
2. The plan to use straw instead of soil didn't work. This might be because we have both more rain and higher temperatures. With the exception of the rosemary, nothing planted in the spiral ever rooted well.
3. The squirrels that live in the live oak loved to eat the herbs - and there was no easy way to protect the plants from squirrel invasion.
4. We realized that the spiral was in the way. There's some, but not much, space between the back of the house and the fence. With that huge live oak centered between the two, there's even less walking space. And as Nate and I start figuring out the patio, we realized that the herb spiral would be in the way.

I had started thinking last year of doing something with the beautiful rocks from my parents' lot, a cascading river of herbs. Almost everything planted in the vegetable garden last year did really well, even though it was unusually hot and dry. Knowing that we were going to have to expand the vegetable garden, Nate and I figured that we should move the herb garden somewhere near. We settled on bricks rather than rocks, because we had the bricks from the herb spiral, and once we agreed on a basic shape, we started stacking our bricks on a piece of cardboard.



After a couple of layers of bricks, we started adding in some soil. Once we had a feel for the space with soil, we added another couple of brick layers.





Eventually we decided on three levels - one two bricks tall, one three, and one four bricks tall, with a back wall five bricks tall. We ended up needing more soil than we had anticipated, but are happy with the shape. There's an overall sloping to the structure, which we wanted since it rains so much we didn't want anything to get flooded (some of the plants on the lower level of the spiral got flooded).



We planted the herbs, from the top going down: basil, dill, sage, oregano, thyme, and mint. I'm leaving a little bit of room for something else, perhaps lavender.



The herbs two weeks later:



We only just started on the vegetate garden this weekend. We planted onions and peppers in the front left corner, two rows of okra in the back left corner, two tomato plants in the back right corner, and peas and jalapeno peppers in the front right, along with a pineapple sage that had survived three or four years now. It came back earlier this month almost without either of us realizing it. On Sunday we almost pull it out as we were pulling out weeds and picking up leaves until I broke off a bit and tasted it. I don't know why we haven't used this plant more often - the flavor is earthy but definitely sweet.

The garden layout:



No labels:







The remains of the herb spiral (and the enormous monster rosemary plant):

Project 7: Vegetable Garden

In previous years I've had a tomato plant during the spring and summer. It's fun when a batch of tomatoes are ready for picking, and they usually are sweet, juicy, perfect little treats.

And then last year we had a very bad tomato plant experience. We decided to plant it upside-down instead of worrying about staking it. The upside-down hanging tomato plant looked cool, and it did work (water didn't have to fight gravity as much, although the plant kept trying to grow vertically); but, it was a beast to manage when we needed to bring it in during hurricanes, and the tomatoes that the plant produced were horrible. Green, shriveled little things that I refused to eat after tasting briefly.

So, I think I avoided getting that type of tomato plant again this year, but we can also plant any tomato in the ground now, rather than a pot, and that should improve the quality of the fruit.

The first thing to do was to clear a spot in the backyard for the garden. The corner closest to the house made sense, because the fence is completed on either side, and the space is in a southern-ly section of the backyard, but wouldn't be too in the way or out of the way for visiting.

Ripping out the old McVicker plants was easy, and Nate and I quickly decided that a roughly six foot by six foot square would make sense, since it wouldn't be too big, but we could always expand it if needed.

Ripping out all of the other weeds and little grasses that had grown up took some time, but leveling the whole was very taxing.







I picked up three bags of soil (2 cubic feet each), and then we went about spreading it around.



Then Nate and I used the old stepping stones to create a little path through the garden, and also divide it into sections.





Basil and pineapple sage:



Tomato plant:



Jalapeno peppers:



Tools and remnants of the project:



I want to edge the area with rocks like the tree in the front yard when I get the chance. This is a project without end, much like the herb spiral. We left space to plant some okra and arugula later on, and we intend to expand it further down the fence (onto the side of the house) as time goes by. I can see us growing more than just herbs - but it will take time. I sometimes regret not making the herb spiral twice as big, since it's almost 80% full now. Anyway, we have lots of space to do whatever we want in.