The last weeks’ soil saga ended with Friday sowing. After we moved most of the soil to the new beds and garden, it was finally the time to start sowing. We have placed new containers all around the yard. The reason is that the different parts of the yard have completely different conditions. 

The front yard is in full sun during the whole afternoon. This is excellent during the spring and makes our seedlings and spring flowers grow quicker than usual, but during the summer, the whole front yard burns up. We need to water the plants 2 times a day just to keep them alive. 

The backyard is the opposite, although the vegetable garden is also in full sun, the upper part of the garden is actually mostly in the shade. The sun is present here only in the early morning. Also, the wind is the strongest in the backyard. This is why we decided to make a lettuce and onion bed in the backyard. The bed was placed in front of the basement, which is now my hubby’s workshop. I’ll also place here my compost barrel, once I fix and paint it.

Before the bed was placed here, this was just a grassy bit, which was pretty hard to mow since it’s a narrow space. Now it will be used to grow some veggies, of course, if Srećko allows me to sow here. 

I was going to sow some cutting lettuce in the bed too, but I went with two old washbowls instead. This is mainly because I forget where I sow, and in the end, I have no idea where I’ve sown cutting varieties. This way I’ll know. Also, this way the big washbowls are used instead of just taking space in the yard. 

As I wrote before, the side yard will now, instead of sheds, be used for the new summer sitting area and new vegetable garden. We have divided the slope into 3 terraces. The lowest one will be the new veggie bed, the middle one will be a place for bbq, pots, and during the summer heat a removable pool, and the upper terrace will be used as a sitting area. This area will be surrounded by flowers, herbs, and veggie pots. Here we’ve built 2 new beds and my hubby made a bunch of big flower containers.

This week I’ve sown the containers and one of the beds. 

One of the beds will be a spinach/beet bed. On this bed, I’ve also added some tatsoi seedlings which I grew during the winter. They will be removed soon, so maybe after we eat the tatsoi, I’ll grow some tomatoes also here. 

This is a fairly big bed, and I’ve decided also to use here some old concrete sewer pipes. We had a couple of pipes left as extras from housework. There’s nothing we can do with them, and breaking them will be lots of work, so I told my hubby I’ll use them as containers. I’ll plant here some climbing or hanging plants, depending on what will be available at the stores. We’ll paint them the same color as the rest of the containers, so they won’t stand out so much. I have one more pipe left to use, it will be placed on the second deck, and I’ll plant my dwarf cypress tree inside.

In the mobile containers, I’ve sown some flowers like nasturtium, carnations, cornflower, and balsamina. I’ve also sown some herbs in one of the containers. I will fill the gaps between the containers with pots that contain the bulbs, which I’ve planted earlier. The pea bed still needs to be filled, but I’ll do that once my neighbor comes to pick up the roofing sheets we’ve saved for him. We’ve moved all the boards and scrap wood we had here and once the sheets are gone all that’s left is to clean the concrete and place some outdoor furniture. 

We were planning on placing some gravel on this deck, but we opted against the gravel since it will be extremely difficult to clean it. The side yard is next to the woods, and we constantly need to clean this part. In the spring we need to remove flower petals, during the summer fruit pits and autumn fills the garden with leaves. It would be too difficult to clean this if there was gravel on the terrace. Instead, next year will pour a thin layer of fresh concrete on top.

 Also, because of the same problem with cleaning, I decided against the sedum roof on the garage. Instead, I will buy some fast-growing, evergreen climbing plants to cover the garage, and the sedum garden will be placed in the hanging containers along with the steps. This is maybe even better because I’ll get to look at my sedums every time I go up and down the steps. We should finish most of the work next week if the weather allows it. 

One thing is certain, the new garden is finally getting its new shape, and right now Srećko is the one that enjoys it the most.

If only he’d spend his days just sleeping around and not digging and pulling out the plants. 😂