At the end of April, I had posted about my planning for the new garden bed. Then it got hot. And I had so much else to do after our move.
However, with less than a month left before school starts again and a week with lower humidity/temperatures (mid-80s), I decided we needed to get moving on it. So that by early fall, I could work on this on my own terms.
First, I marked out the perimeter of the new garden. It will become bigger, but I wanted to see what 40 by 4o feet looked like. I took it almost to the edge, where the lawn drops off (down below is the septic drainfield).There is also a tree that needs to be cut and taken to the ground.
To start, I had Kirk mow this side of the house. He cuts to about 5″ in height. Then I went in and mowed it with Ol’ Crappy to about 2″ or less. I went as low as that heap could do it. It finally had a break in the rain this week, but the lawn was still soaked. Last week, we experienced multiple days of heavy rain. And while it might be warm, it can take forever to dry out.
I will keep using this mower till it finally dies. It is being held together with duct tape.
Working with heavy-duty farm fabric. The first roll was 5 feet 5″ wide. We cut it into 40 foot long sections.
First strip down. You want to be sure to peg down the edges well.
Three rows down. We overlapped by about 4 to 5″ on each section, so grass cannot easily push up between it.
Four rows in we ran out of the first roll of fabric, 160 feet used.
I had to wait for the new roll of fabric to ship overnight, so I had them bring out the two raised beds Alistaire had built for me. The raised beds are 8 feet long by 4 feet wide. I plan to give them three feet from the fence, so I can walk around and work.
At least get an idea of what we are doing—four more sections to lay down.
The new fabric showed up, a 500-foot roll.
Now onto finishing the ends.
So much more to do – but it is happening finally.
When we moved, I left behind a couple of essential items in the greenhouse at the old place. A bonus for the new owners, I suppose. One was a roll of farm fabric (one got packed. The other didn’t). I also left behind a nearly full box of fabric pins. So I had to buy a new box, but what I got was better in some ways. The FEED brand comes with plastic disks that you insert the galvanized landscape fabric pin/staple into, and then use a plastic or rubber mallet to drive into the ground. This helps prevent the staples from bending and getting bent as you pound in. It also helps with the fabric not tearing around the staple. A win for me.
Part 3 is already happening, and I will write more later.
~Sarah