It's Been a Long Time Coming -My Garden as a Work in Progess

Where my garden now stands, fall of '11 with weeds taller then I am

When I purchased my house in the fall of 2011 the yard wasn't quite a blank slate. It was a blank slate with weeds all over it. The 6 foot tall variety in places. It was also mostly unfenced. What this picture unfortunately doesn't show is the 10' pile of trash that was in the yard. It wasn't just trash trash. You know, the kind that you put out every week. This pile of trash was special. It was the result of a decade long tradition of the block to dump their stuff in the lot that now belonged to me. My one consolation is that I used that pile of trash to effectively negotiate the sale price of the house. It was full of old tattered tarps, truck hoods, gnarled chain link fence and barbed wire. Intermingled in with all this was normal every day trash, tangled in the barbed wire. Oh and creepy dolls. This process of clearing out the yard took most of my time and mental and physical energy for the first year and frankly burn me out from the whole idea of putting in my dream garden.

Garden plans, drawn out spring of '12

Planing Out My Garden

Even though I was completely burnt out from the actual building of the garden space I was determined to have it move forward. This page has been referred to many times over the past few years, even by Phin with a green colored pencil to highlight notes. One of my favorite things to see happen is having my garden turn out nearly as planned long ago. Even better is to see the organic additions that have been added on top of the original, rigid utilitarian design. Allowing for that growth and change is a major part of my intended aesthetics for the garden. Plan for the unplanned. Let it reflect the mood of the moment, of the process. Always giving room for mistakes and running with them. Some of my favorite elements of my garden occurred due directly to mistakes and miscalculations. 

Garden layout spring of '13

Laying Out the Garden Boxes

Last spring I started to lay out the garden boxes and fence for the garden space. Building in the chicken coop into the garden has been such a fun aspect to the garden. It has also been one of the best decisions for the sustainability of the garden, which I discuss in more detail here. I also got our composter going and getting some good prep work prior to getting plants this year.

Working on my garden trellis spring of '14

Details on My Garden Trellis

One of the happy realizations that I had as I was looking at leftover 4"x4" scraps from my trellises was that i could easily cut out wedges for small trinkets, art, and small plants to decorate. This like everything else is a work in progress. The ladder and the pneumatic staple gun (one of Emma and my favorite tools) are still out.

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Snails Are Gross and Yucky! They're for our Chickens!

Gardeners everywhere hate snails, even the French I hear. They are slimy, eat rotting wood, and obviously all your plants. Especially your tomatoes. My back yard is where snails go to hang out apparently. They love it, and after years of neglect I don't blame them. But my garden is in now, and while they aren't on my menu (yet (and probably never will be to be honest)) they are on the menu for my beautiful egg laying hens. They LOVE escargot! I don't even have to sauté them with garlic. My chickens are on the other side of the spectrum from snails. I love them. They are cool to watch, add to my compost, lay eggs, eat my weeds, eat kitchen scraps, and obviously SNAILS!

Snail Hunting for the Chickens

Every morning when the dew is heavy on the grass, the kids and I go out looking for snails. This may sound gross and maybe tedious, as they like to hide along the garden boxes in the wet grass. However the exact opposite is true. I mean really! Did you watch the video? In fact I invite you to come join in on the snail slaughtering fun. Never was there a more fitting death for these sluggish gastropods. The chickens seam elated to be presented this treat, its like candy. They fight over them.

Sustainable Placement of the Chicken Coop 

There is an odd Provo City ordinance that states that a chicken coop must be 15 feet away from the property line. While this makes sense when noise and smell is considered, but no one knows about it and it is never enforced. While I am not the most law abiding citizen, I do follow residential speed limits, and I decided to put the chicken coop in the middle of my property and build around it. (more of a design element/aesthetics then to comply with code to be honest) This has been one of the best decisions in my naive experiment of gardening that I have embarked on. They are great to have right in the middle of things for getting rid of snails and other organic waste, but its also nice to have them be a more central part of the garden. Did I mention one lays blue eggs? Or that Emma named one Dark Snow? It was either that or Alfredo, Cordon Bleu, or Fried Steak. Emma wasn't amused.

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The Grand Experiment of Gardening -A Brief Introduction

Garden with adjoining chicken coup at pre-plant stage.

I probably should have started this blog months ago.. Isn't that how most things go though? So why not start now? The impetus of this blog is a current project I have recently embarked on: to build, plant, and sustain myself from a garden (including egg laying chickens, and I will hopefully be getting bees sometime soon) over the course of June to October or November. As I'm still in the pre-experiment point of this project its still a great time to start posting.

A Subsidized Garden

The garden will be subsidized with rice and homemade bread. I am also toying with the idea of trading produce from the garden for things that I am unable to grow, like limes and other fruit. (though I do have two apple trees) This blog will probably be pretty organic (pun intended) that is another way of saying non linear and haphazard topic wise. But that's what my garden project has already started to evolve into. So its fitting. Likewise the blog will most likely extend out in to other aspects of life as well, like kids, art etc but that's cool too cause they are such huge things in my life, and will probably relate on a tangential basis.

Garden Feedback Appreciated

I would love to hear from you the reader with any questions, comments, ideas ect. though the greatest would be to have you come over and check out the garden space and have some fresh produce to boot. As this project kicks off in less then then a week the question that may be on many of your minds is "Is there anything to eat?!" I'm happy to say that yes there is plenty. The beginnings will be filled with mostly greens over rice with an egg over easy, but that's not a bad option at all. In fact I may start with that dish early.

Caveat: If at any time I find that the garden project is unsustainable I have no qualms about ending it. My health, and especially the health of Emma and Phin is of utmost importance. I have a feeling though that we will be eating better then ever before. Also this is not a renouncement of meat in anyway! Maybe in the future I'll introduce rabbits or something. It is more an experiment on eating fresher tastier food, getting closer to where it comes from, get creative in the kitchen, push myself to learn new things, and have a great time doing it with my kids.

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