The work continues – through the heat and humidity of a West Virginia summer. My window of having help shortens by the day, when the boys return to school. Start early, then come out after dinner, once the sun starts to settle low. It’s not much cooler, but at least the sun isn’t directly over us.
I decided to risk it with potential deer harassing my garden, and started moving items in the evening, to get as much as I could off the patio. The truth is, the patio doesn’t get enough sun during the day. Mostly what I moved were herbs and grow bags of potatoes, not things deer are usually too interested in.
It was 80° as we started early in the morning, but we got the T-posts up and running. I bought 25 6-foot poles (Tractor Supply seems to be the most affordable option here in the Eastern Panhandle, at about $6 each).
More went in.
Filling in more.
We brought out more of the grow bags, and some were already done for the season, so I put the soil from them into the raised beds to reuse it.
To start the soil in the beds, I added wood chips and peat moss on the bottom. And then dumped in the soil from the now-empty bags. Might as well reuse.
I was also transferring the potatoes I had started in July, as they hadn’t grown. However, once I moved the soil, I found that all my July potatoes were completely rotten – like hot, mashed potatoes. Interesting lesson I didn’t know I would learn. In the PNW, this was never an issue. I must have cooked them in the grow bags for the past few weeks.
I decided to try out felt liners for the bed to prevent soil from escaping from the floorless beds and to keep the area neater. They came in 2 packs, and are 4 by 4 feet, with four sections in each. I paid $19.99 for each two-pack. Which fills one raised bed. We are using eight-by-four-foot beds, which I spent $70 on (they came 2 to a package)..
I got an herb bed in, of all the herbs I had started this spring. That left me very happy.
I did the lower half of the fencing – while hardware cloth isn’t actually fencing, I had brought four rolls with us. Paid for fencing is better than buying new fencing – and since I won’t have chickens, my need for it has decreased.
We built more raised beds. I thought about putting a pop-up greenhouse into the bed….
I had brought up all the small pots that I had kept on the patio. These were strawberry and herb plants.
It really is.
I was getting all fancy and had filled in the base of the greenhouse with pea gravel, made of granite and similar, in a light color.
The strawberry bed is half alpine, half regular. Both sides will fill in eventually.
I only moved one tomato plant, a cherry plant, into the new garden. It was easy to move.
And sometimes one learns lessons, whether they want to or not.
I was so proud of my work. Then we received a warning about a potential severe thunderstorm approaching. I went outside to check on everything.
When suddenly the wind showed up, howling out of the Appalachian Mountains across the Shenandoah Valley. I am finding the wind here? It can be far worse than the wind back on Whidbey Island, even off the Salish Sea. The wind was hammering anything tall. I was about to have a kite on my hands. And I was outside, with a potential thunderstorm approaching. Not my most brilliant moment. We got the greenhouse out and ran for the patio. With two holding it down, we got the cover off and then ran inside.
It might have been some of the strongest winds I have ever experienced. I ended up inhaling far too much dust and was coughing for a good hour afterward.
I whined the next day, and then got back to work. I figured out I couldn’t have a pop-up greenhouse out in the garden – it is too exposed. Neither can I have tall structures. The greenhouse will stay where it has thrived, which is under the patio, between two support beams. And use it as a shed till spring, for all my garden gear.
So I moved five of the large pots into the area I had built as a focal area.
I added more herbs to the herb bed.
The sun came back out, and we added more raised beds.
The look of the garden was starting to come together.
It’s still my happy place. Lessons exist for a reason.
I started the upper fence, adding favorite garden signs I had brought with me.
Some I just don’t point to the road is all.
Kirk picked me up the cutest statue kit, and I added it to the focal area.
The herbs are doing so much better in the main garden. The Comfrey is growing well.
I have one raspberry plant growing. Soon it will be planted in a raised bed, but now that it is getting enough sun, it is producing berries. Next year I want one side red, the other half will be golden.
Sweet Potato vines. growing up the fence. I bought slips on a lark earlier in the sun. Now in the sun, they are growing fast.
Ten raised beds have been built so far. We finished the upper fence today. We have another four beds to build. Then more planning.
I upgraded the grapes into larger pots and put them in the front corners, so they can start growing up the fence.
My goal is to add more grapes next year and eventually have the fence covered in vines. I will get bigger pots. That are designed for large trees.
But now…go build more beds and find a source for a lot of soil.
~Sarah
