I have started the process of moving my raised beds from Georgia Home Garden 1.0 to the new house. The old house hasn't sold and I was going to leave the beds there, but those jokers are coming with me now that the house hasn't sold. I am working on the first garden area at the new house, a North Facing side yard. This side yard is dead space and had drainage issues when we bought the house, but I think I can get some use out of it.
So here it is before I started and a complete mess, full of weeds and mushy ground.
You can see the stains on the bottom of the brick, there were no gutters on this side of the house. I had them installed shortly after we moved in.
Part of the problem with the drainage was the ground was sloped toward the house and was full of pits and high spots.
Here is the view from my neighbors yard looking down at my house, you can see how the ground slopes.
I pulled the weeds, brought in 5 yards of fill dirt that was shoveled by hand and wheel barrow. (I am getting a real strong upper back, this brings my tally to 11 yards of material hand shoveled so far.)
View from neighbors house
I started on the house side and graded it away from the house to a low spot. I then went from the hill side and kept the natural slope but just filled it in to make a nice smooth surface.
I set a string line that was an equal distance from the house and made everything grade toward the string line and then toward my front yard. The goal was to create a slight gulley for the water to naturally flow toward. We got a few good rains after this pic was taken and it worked well. The ground is pretty mushy now, but that is only because the dirt is fresh and needs to settle.
I laid pine straw to keep the weeds at bay and left an area open to place the raised beds.
Another angle from neighbors (I get weird looks from them, wondering what I am up to haha.)
Ok, now the most important part. Placement of the beds was going to be crucial in this North facing garden. The house shades this area, but the amount of shade depends on the time of day and more importantly the time of year. I did a lot of reading on that and decided to take a picture of the area at noon on December 21st, which is the Winter solstice. That is the time of the year when the sun is the lowest in the sky and the shade would be the worst. If I placed my beds outside this shade range on that day, then they should receive plenty of sunlight because the shade would only get better after that date. That is it for part 1, everything is ready to go now.
6 comments:
Having shoveled 20 yards of soil last March I can honestly say I feel your pain, but at the end it will be all worth it and your new garden will be beautiful!
Jenny, I feel your pain. In my case, I drove my truck to the gravel yard one yard at a time. I think that was the hardest part. It would be a lot easier if they would have just delivered it, but my projects are normally spaced out. One time I might need a couple yards of fill dirt, then a few yards a top soil, that is the hardest part. You get really good at it after a few yards.
I remember your big pile of "garden soil" from last year, that was a beast of a job.
It looks great!!! You have done so much work. I would have brought my raised beds too, in fact I think we did when we moved.
That is such a lot of work. You will be glad you did it though.
Thanks Farm Girl, your are so right about how much work it has been. I think it is going to be worth it too, I have also been toying with the idea of bring my rock wall from my old house, but I know how much work it will be.
This is really sad news that you are moving the garden. I wish the garden will more beautiful in new place. PlantWerkZ
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