Preparing a Garden

We dedicated a weekend to preparing a garden site in the back yard. Erik had laid down plastic to kill the grass for me last fall. Then he rota tilled the area for me and it looked perfect to plant. However we ran out of time so I assumed we would plant the next weekend. The fence is falling down on the same side of the yard as my garden site. Our neighbor told us that she wants to replace it with a 6 ft tall chain link fence instead!!! This made both Erik and I panic and feel sick at the thought that our only privacy in this fishbowl we live in would be taken away! He went over to her house the next day and proposed the idea that he would take apart the fence and fix it. She agreed to that (not really wanting chain link either but it is the cheaper way to go). That weekend (the one I thought I would be planting my garden) poured and we sludged around the garden site working on the fence. Erik did a great job fixing it. The only problem is that my nicely rota tilled garden turned into compacted dried out cracked clay! There is no way my little seeds would grow in this! Unfortunately I had already planted the raspberries my mom gave me. So the weekend after we fixed the fence Erik bought me a truck load of compost that he mixed in and rota tilled the garden area again. It was a lot of work but it was worth the time and energy because now my seeds have a chance of survival. I planted the fruits and vegetables I bought from starts: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumber, arugula, and cilantro. I waited for warmer weather to plant my seeds. I also learned the importance of slug bait! I woke up one morning to find that both of my squash had been eaten to oblivion and that my cucumber plant was halfway gone. I started squash from seeds and also decided to plant pumpkins. When the weather got nicer I planted: butterhead lettuce, another type of lettuce, spinach, kale, carrots, swiss chard, more cilantro, and potatoes. I am still in search of basil starts since I didn't plant any by seed. I also have strawberries, blueberries,and huckleberries. My raspberries and apple trees will not be producing fruit this year.

Garden halfway planted. Recent pictures coming soon!