You Grow Girl™

So I finally got it done - yesterday admist the gloom of a rainy day, I dug my garden. It only took me about 1.5-2 hours, and it’s about 4×3 feet (I figured I could always expand it a bit more if I needed to). I used my trusty shovel (I always say a good metal shovel - no plastic! - is all you really need when it comes to gardening), 10 L of mushroom manure, 15 L of topsoil, and a whole lot of tenacity. My back is a bit sore today, but that’s to be expected.

As some people may remember from my previous posts, the guy who lives upstairs flat out refused to let me use even enough room for one or two plants in his garden. So, I went forth and contacted the landlord and asked if it was okay for me to dig my own. He didn’t mind at all, and off I went to dig my in the yard.

Before:

Pretty barren as you can see (and you can also see a part of the area that he uses as his garden).

With a little preliminary scouting, I found a part in the yard that receives about 5 hours of shade, and about 4 hours of sun. With the increase in the sunlight of the day, most of it will be sunny for most of the day - which is good because I prefer sunny spots and don’t really like to grow in shade as I like to grow my own herbs and vegetables.

I started digging and noticed it wasn’t as clay-logged as I had thought, which was a nice surprise. Also, for some reason, there had been a layer of plastic placed down on the yard with some really small gravel (almost the consistency of sand) over top. I have absolutely no clue what this was used for, so I dug it up. Once I had ripped off the top layer of grass and moss (mostly moss) I turned everything over to loosen up the soil. I then layed down the mushroom manure and once again turned. Next was the topsoil, and then again, more turning. Thanks to the gravel, I didn’t have to throw down any sand.

This morning I opened up my window to take a look at my new garden and noticed Charlie, the upstairs cat, taking a big dump right in the middle of it, so I opened my window and scared him off. Hopefully he’ll learn, if not, I’m going to try some broken CDs. If that doesn’t work, I’ll get some of that gel stuff that deters them with its smell - of course I can’t remember the name but it’s great because it seems to work and it doesn’t wash away with the rain!

Now all that’s left is for me to fill it with plants! I’m going to start some seeds sometime this week, and I’ll be making trips as often as I can to anywhere selling outdoor plants. I even managed to pick up some oregano and thyme today at my local grocery store. It must be spring!

Me in my trusty gardening clothes:

After the digging is done:

The first plant planted: