Kitchen Garden Redo

Last year, I was lucky enough to be able to secure the services of Garden Rant writer, sustainable gardener and garden coach Susan Harris. I say lucky because we just happen to live in the same area and because she was able to give me some great ideas. One of those ideas was expanding my little kitchen garden, a flower bed, really. I didn't think we'd get to that project this Spring, but we're more than halfway done. I expect to be able to plant by next Sunday.

Here's a view of our kitchen garden last year.

It's a rectangular, mostly south-facing bed against the back of the house. The three green mounds in the center of the photo are miniature boxwoods, and the green mound to the far right is a mugho pine. The overgrown clump to the right of the rightmost boxwood is a bolting parsley.  This photo was taken in early spring after we'd planted three tomatoes and a couple of peppers.  While the bed had a good bit of room, only the left half got enough sun, and there just wasn't enough room for me to grow all the things I wanted.

Susan suggested enlarging the bed into a slightly teardrop shape and bringing it around the heating/cooling units to the bed on the side of the house.  So that's what we are doing. We'll be adding a stone "landing" at the bottom of the steps from the deck at a later date. Here's a photo of the beginning of the expansion. You can see we're adding a good bit of area. You can also see the ugly heating/cooling units, but I don't want to take up the space to screen them. They will have to stay where they are.

After cutting in the edge, we moved all the pots out of the way. Garden Man tilled the grass area so he could rake the grass clumps out.  He also had some roots to remove. Once the offending parties were all taken out, he moved the boxwoods and the mugho pine to a spot in the far left of this photo, in front of the AC units.  I then dug out the rosemary, lavender and oregano and set them aside.  Then Garden Man spread every last bit of our precious compost pile onto the area and tilled it in. 

In this photo, you can see the boxwoods have been moved. We had yet to move all the pots, the pine and the herbs.  Some of the compost has been spread, and there's more in the wheelbarrow.  I think there were a couple more loads, and that was it.  Luckily, we have another pile with last fall's leaves just beginning to break down.

While we were busily working, it began to rain, so I didn't get any photos.  Before the rain began, though, we were able to get all the compost tilled in and the bed smoothed. I also got the lavender, rosemary and oregano replanted.  It continued raining the night after we worked and into the next day. The v-trench at the bed's edge looked like a river.

The next step will be to put a walkway from up in the corner near the deck steps and hose bib down the length of the bed. The bed is so wide now that I can't reach into it from the yard.  I've decided to put a rain barrel where the downspout comes down, next to the deck. The rain barrel should help with water management and provide extra water for dry spells.

So far, I'm very pleased and can't wait to get planting. I'll post more photos when the weather allows.

Comments

[Karen]

That's really exciting! Sometimes it helps to have another pair of eyes to sort out your garden issues. I did the same thing yesterday, hired a fellow blogger to come help me figure out what to do with some of my continuing garden issues. It felt so good to get her expert input! Way to go with your expanded kitchen bed, I'm sure it will be worth all the work and trouble when you increase your harvest.

[Gail]

Kim, You have two great garden helpers...Susan and GM! The new improved Kitchen Bed is looking great. The boxwoods look perfect in their new home! Can't wait to see it as the season continues! I am glad you are back to posting! gail