NEW BACKYARD GARDEN

by Marlene
(Shefford, Quebec, Canada)

2007 - A Work In Progress - Zone 4A

I moved here in February 2006, the 16,000 sq.ft. lot was just lawn and a few trees, no flower beds, no veggie garden, no nothing but all that lawn!

There was a major undertaking getting the sod out of a 31 x 41 foot section in back of the house! No I didn't do it - this was done by a local contractor, paid for by my daughter who gave it to me as part of a Mother's Day gift!! Only a gardener could appreciate this lovely gift!! And it sure was a major undertaking - this is heavy clay soil!

Last summer I managed to put in a small veggie garden and take care of some of the Hosta and a few other plants I had dug out of the community garden plot where I lived before.

The picture is this year's version, there is approximately 1/2 still uncultivated, a testimony to the advice that one should start small. I still have to weed the uncultivated section!!

As this is heavy clay soil, I add a forestry natural mulch, work it well in to about 6-12 inches, and sometimes add peat moss for specific sections. Also I am putting in several gravel pathways through the garden, as last year I lost a rubber boot in the mud during all that rain we had here! With this clay soil, when it rains you sink at least up to your ankles, and when there are several dry days it's like trying to weed in a cement yard!! The garden hose then becomes a weeding tool.

I have three types of tomatoes this year, grape, Italian and Sub-Arctic Plenty (this one doesn't need staking),romaine lettuce, Spanish and Chinese onions, green and yellow beans, swiss chard, beets, carrots, German cucumbers, spinach, corn and potatoes, along with (one thing I did right) a little herb garden right beside the entrance to my sun room in the rear.

I am building two raised beds with a system I purchased from Lee Valley which holds the square patio stones to make the sides. These beds will have covers with interchangeable inserts, one clean plastic to make cold frames for the spring, then changed over to mesh to keep out the beasties!! We have deer, skunks, chipmunks and lots of birds, not to mention the neighbours' cats, and my own Papillon puppy who was born to dig, so the covers will protect certain plants I want to experiment with, not to mention these raised beds will save wear and tear on the back!

Just in passing - this clay soil is full of nutrients, and when you plant in raised beds to allow for the rainfalls, and add a soil lightener, you get lovely veggies, with almost no fertilizer! I also built a compost box, it will give me a lot of black gold and I'm saving it up for next spring. Makes me feel good as my household garbage container only fills up every 3-4 weeks, what with the compost and the recycling.

Best of luck to all the beginning gardeners out there, I have been doing it off and on for a long time and still feel like I have a lot to learn!