Good for you Pat. There is nothing like a dog to show us how to live life, the way we wish we could.
When I moved to my dads old house, I was against the relocation. It was my wife that pushed for it. I'm still not sincerely behind it, but I'm making do. I brought some of my old garden with me, in fact - some of you may recall I did a lot of planting in tires a season back.
Well, I can say that old car tires as planters are over-rated. I know some people swear by them, but I wont do it again. Nothing really did well in them. I think it may have been the heat, and perhaps some of the petrochemical un-naturalness of them. Maybe both - I'm not gonna go there.
But I can say the things Ive planted this year in the ground are already doing better. Same seeds, even the same soil, most of which I recovered.
I did a sort of sheet/lasagna garden, where I laid down cardboard poked full of holes. Then I piled all my old soil on top, and added whatever organics I could come with. Its still pretty rough looking and not very big by some standards:
That's 4 X 30 - 120 square feet. Its over on one side of the house, where there once was a scruffy section of lawn. Now its gonna grow -
Tomatoes
Beans
Peppers
Lettuces
Okra
Cucumbers
Melons
Marigolds
It gets pretty hot over there, so by midsummer a lot of my growing things will be gone. I will have peppers, cukes, and melons only by then.
The tepee looking structures are tree branches, tied into growing trellises with heavy electrical wire. The one in the middle is some little plant stand my wife had, which I re-purposed. I still have one more tepee to erect. Im working on a watering system next, something to carry water from the faucet on one end to the far end.
Flowers are grown in pots and containers in the front yard area, where Lori can see them. She really likes an eclectic mix of potted foliage and blooms; I on the other hand like an orderly, plotted out growing grid of veggies, a la Square Foot Gardening. So that is our compromise. BTW the round, standy-uppy thing by the water faucet is going to be my sundial stand.
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