How not to build a garden – guest post by Ithilien

 

Five years ago, I told Faramir that we had to buy a house with a garden big enough to grow lots of lovely fruits and veggies. And it had to be a proper in-ground garden, not just a collection of pots.* So we bought a house.

Four and a half years later, we started work on our new garden.**

It seemed like a really simple project. It was a tiny patch of lawn. All we had to do was remove the grass, put down gravel on the paths, and build some simple raised beds. I figured it would take about a month, working every weekend. We’d start in mid-winter so that we’d be ready to plant in spring.

And we decided that we should do it all ourselves and save some money. It would be a wonderful bonding experience for us to build it together.

You can stop laughing now.

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First, we dug up the lawn. The well-established lawn on heavy, wet clay soil.

This is what it used to look like.

It was obviously too small a job to justify hiring any machinery.***

Ten weeks later, we started to build the paths. First, we laid down weed mat between the beds.+

Then it was time to cover the paths with gravel. (The newspaper shows the shape of the beds. More or less.)

Did you know that gravel is very heavy?++ #

Faramir thought the result looked rather like a car park. Our neighbours tried to make encouraging noises.

I pointed out that we’d done all the hard labour. Putting together the garden beds would much quicker and easier.

Of course, I didn’t want any chemicals around my organic, sustainable garden, so I ordered the latest eco-friendly, sustainable, termite-resistant wood.

There was a minor problem with the wood.

There was a small delay in obtaining more wood from the sawmill.

The next challenge was high school geometry.

How hard could it be to build some simple boxes? We’re both engineers!

Actually, don’t answer that…

Did I mention how very grateful we were to the cousin who lent us a wheelbarrow?

The exciting part! Planting!

Ta-da!

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* Even if it was a rapidly growing collection of pots. Pots are great because there’s no commitment. You can always move things around.^

^ Yep.  And if all the plumbing in your town runs under your garden you have the perfect excuse to stay confused and indecisive forever.

** It took some time to agree on a design. I wanted this. Or this. Or this. Faramir wanted something that would fit on a 5 x 5 metre lawn.

*** Halfway through the lawn excavation, I put my hands on my hips and glared at Faramir. “Who wanted this stupid garden anyway?” But we persisted. And it only took two and a half months.

+ www.weedgunnel.com.au  -  water and air permeable, kills weeds by blocking out light. And it’s biodegradable, so it doesn’t disintegrate into nasty little plastic strips over the  years.

++ We didn’t have a wheelbarrow at first, so we tried carrying the gravel in buckets. That bright idea lasted about ten minutes. Then we rang my handyman cousin and begged him for a loaner.

#  Yes.  And eventually the BOTTOM FELL OUT of my heavy-duty, guaranteed-just-as-good-as-metal-but-eighty-six-times-lighter plastic wheelbarrow.