Kitchen Gardens

My 'vision' was to re-create some formal English gardens on our cute little Southern acreage.  The plans have adapted and changed over the past many weeks, but we are pleased with the outcome and thought we'd post some of the changes to our landscape:



If you look closely, you can see the stakes and white string I used to 'map out' the shape of the plots.

Matt and I dug plots out by hand - shoveling the soil and composting with bits of cardboard and packing paper (something we had a lot of!)  Notice the playset area got dug out too.

Each plot sat for a couple weeks while we shopped for a rototiller.  We ended up with a great deal and Matt spent many hours doing the tilling.  Then came the centerpiece - a stone circle topped with a rustic whisky barrel. Matt helped with the mathematics of its construction and Lana purchased the materials.  The family assembled it.  The white rose bush/tree (Amy's choice) that is planted inside is pruned to take on a nice circle shape.  It should double in size - about 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide at its max.

The next step was building arbors.  We originally intended to purchase formal ones, but at $200-$500 a piece, we opted to make our own from a fallen tree at the front/side of our yard.  A little weather-proofing sealer, a circular saw, screws and some work = rustic arbors! Amy thinks they look 'wonky' but they are characteristic of what we've seen at some of the nearby Plantation Manors so we figure it's a good fit for both the budget and the style we're after.

Arbor/arches cap each of the 4 'trails' and playset has wood chips down (mulched from fallen pear trees in the front yard).

 Each arbor features a unique plant.  So far we have honeysuckle, tangerine crossvine, purple grapes and green Niagara grapes.

The planting season is long here in the south, so we were able to get a few late-plant crops in the ground.  The little girls enjoyed planting peas (LOTS of peas), turnips and spinach.  Next season we have plans for a bigger (and better) variety, but we were just grateful to get something in the ground for this year's harvest.

We've spent HOURS and HOURS as a family working outside and Matt has had all the heavy lifting/cutting jobs.  A big thanks to him for catching on to my vision and joining in with enthusiasm.  We hope it all comes together and we have even better photos to share later on!