Backyard Flower Garden ~ Project 1 of 100

Yesterday I was told by my boss to 'go home early'. So I did!

We have a few amazing gardens that were set up at our house by the previous owners, but terribly maintained.  Our yard has a great layer of black dirt that was hauled in so everything, including weeds, grow amazingly well. There are at least 5 worms every time I take a scoop of the yard up which is great for most things...  The lining of the gardens was done with untreated wood.  For the past 5 years these wood pieces have been slowly becoming one with the ground.

My goal budget for my Projects is extremely small, almost nothing actually.

So it's more like a fun summer(s) challenge!

So here we is what I will be calling Backyard Flower Garden Project 1.  There are a few things I hope to change with each of the gardens but I have realized each is a much large project that I previously thought.

So yesterday I got started!

(Project 1 - April 2010)

To start Project 1, I have completed:

1) Post on Freecycle that I am looking for landscaping rocks. I was able to get a small load of small rocks from a local homeless shelter. The shelter is moving to a larger building and was 'cleaning house' to get rid of old stuff, the rocks were part of that stuff. Lucky Me! 

1.1) When the weather is dry I have 2 contacts that will allow me to walk through their fields to get rocks that will work for my garden. There are lots of fields in the area with rock piles, I just need the permission to venture out and gather. I only have 1/4 of the rocks needed so far.

2) Remove old wood lining. Not as easy as I thought.  Grass and crazy-weeds started growing up through the wood making it very hard for removal. Thank God for my metal rake or I would still be out there digging... Four of the wood pieces were rotting and fell apart while trying to remove. 

Rotten...

Split in half lengthwise, very fun to remove...

Can you even see that I'm the most rotten?!

Ahhhh, one out (mostly).

Out, finally.

Whew, all out!!

3) Set aside wooden pieces for use in vegetable garden fencing.

Not all of these pieces will be able to be reused but I'm hoping to figure out something to do with the others. The half rottens will either be placed in the woods with the wood pile or thrown in a camp fire.

4) Pile rocks until enough are gathered to line garden. 

Love the shapes and colors.

LOVE ROCKS!

 Today was beautiful out,60 degrees, however not the day to complete Project 1. Started a whole new Project today... the garden! The garden does not have a Project number yet, but will soon, and has the potential to be 50 smaller projects. Tomorrow and Monday call for rain so Project 1 will have to wait until next weekend to be completed or continued. Here is how I had to leave it for now, but it still looks better to me than before!  

*The wooden fence will stay until it becomes a problem (aka: a new project).

Next for Project 1:

* Remove mulch. Has created a huge mold problem. (weird colors)

*Remove landscaping material and replace with newspaper.

(material is ripping, visible and pieces are blowing into our pond and woods)

*Decide what material to use to replace the mulch. (rocks?)

*Identify current flowers and plants, learn how to maintain.

*Possibly add rhubarb(?)