idea for my blank slate back yard

[rainbowgardener]

Lots of fun ideas

I like the look of the bricks. I myself don't care much for pointy corners. I like more of an arch shape to the beds so the outer circle mimics the inner circle, the sectors of the outer beds will look more like arcs and less like quarter circles. But I also know that if you are doing a brick path it will be easier to use straight lines instead of curves where the bricks would have to be cut.


The arc beds in the diagram you linked to look cool, but even more hard work, if you want them edged and raised.

I do take your "point" about the pointy corners. I could conceivably deal with that just by truncating the corner far enough back to make a small arc there. I think that was in my original design and got lost somewhere along the way.

And yes, it is great not to have to haul all these bricks down a steep hillside!

I'm working as hard as I can now, because I have no idea how much longer I will be able to do outdoor yard work. If I were still in Cinti, it would already be over.

[rainbowgardener]

So here it is again. Note that I took imafan's suggestion and made it rounded not pointy at the corner (as best I could):

IMG_0632.JPG (42.17 KiB) Viewed 3076 times

two walls done now, just the outer curved edge to do and then this quarter will be done and ready to fill!

[JasonFL]

Pretty cool reading this from the beginning to now, looking great!

[rainbowgardener]

I keep dreaming.... Here's my latest backyard sketch:

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The square beds will be probably 4' x 4' Note the large fish tank next to the shed. This will be an aquaponics set up. The two square beds closest to it will be two layers/ levels to give some height for gravity feed and the top level will be hydroponic, planted in clay pebbles, so the water can go back into the fish tank. Fish poo enriched water will get pumped up to the hydro beds.

The cool thing about that is that one problem with aquaponics is that the plants need a lot of sun, but the fish need shade. By putting the fish tank in the shade of the shed (I could even put a little awning out over it), then I can accommodate all of that.

All around the edges will be small trees, shrubs, tall grasses, native wildflowers.

It is obviously a plan for more than one season. But I am putting the finishing touches on the first quarter of the circle. The square beds I think I will do like I have done in the past - 4" by 4" fence posts stacked. I won't strip sod or anything, just put down lots of cardboard, so they will be pretty quick and easy and will definitely be ready by spring. In fact, I think I will do them next after the first circle quarter, so when I am filling that, I can fill the squares too and all of it can be mellowing for spring. For this season they will all be just one level, three sisters plantings. The whole aquaponics thing will be another year's project. But I can plant one block of corn in each one in succession, two weeks apart, which will keep us in corn most of the summer!

Next to the deck or maybe in the side yard will be potato patches. The gate shown goes out to the side yard mini-orchard. Two apple trees already planted and two peach trees to come in spring.

So apples, peaches, later some berries, maybe paw-paw and/or persimmon as part of the around the edges stuff. Potatoes; corn, beans, squash, in the squares; tomatoes, peppers, carrots, and cold season stuff in the circle, flowers and herbs scattered around and in containers on our nearly 500 sq ft of deck; hens for eggs, food fish in the tank.... A regular homestead on not quite half an acre! (I currently am vegetarian and don't eat fish, but if we were growing our own sustainably, I would, though neither of us is real enthusiastic about killing and cleaning them Oh well cross that bridge when we come to it; they are hypothetical fish at this point.)

[applestar]

Battery I dying 10% left!
Quickly wanted to say I love it

[rainbowgardener]

So today I finished up my one quadrant of circle, got it all ready to fill.

Laid down some 4x4' cardboard squares to visualize what those beds would look like. I realized that the drawing is all out of scale. Some time I need to get graph paper and measure and make a real scale drawing. In real life, the four 4x4 squares looked incredibly small and puny next to the giant massive Stonehenge I am building on the other side of the shed.

So I think it will turn into nine 4x4' beds in a square layout. It will look better balanced that way. Hey, a girl can never have too many raised beds, right?

[rainbowgardener]

Oh, I realized I didn't show the last picture in this series:

I have since finished off those ends, but they are imperfect, because the bricks didn't split evenly, so I may still work on them some more.

I dug up partly finished compost (from the compost pile I started in October and filled in the channel behind the bricks (which doesn't show in this pic) and laid more cardboard over everything. So now the bed is ready to fill with composted manure and topsoil, and wood chips in the path in front of it (between bricks and the black edging (which needs a little more pounding down).

(This picture, of course, is taken from the opposite direction as the last one, to show the curved wall.)

[rainbowgardener]

I looked back at the previous page of this and discovered that some of the links got broken, when I made a folder for pics of the new place.

So here's the one that shows when I just bought all those bricks and stacked them under the deck:



compare to the few bricks left in the background of the new picture!

[applestar]

Looks really great! That's going to be such a nice architectural feature too.

I'm wondering though -- can you reach the middle? (I should just go scroll back and see what the dimensions are... )

[rainbowgardener]

Well, no....

The sides, which are radii of a circle, turned out to be 11 bricks long, which is a bit over 8 ft. That means the distance from the inside corner point to the middle of the curved outer wall is the same distance. So no, I won't be able to reach all of it and will have to step in to my beds some.

And yes, it will be an "architectural feature." Seen from outer space and all! Surprisingly enough, my permaculture backyard, will have some qualities in common with very formal European garden designs. Lots of geometry! Hopefully, once it is all full of growing things, it will be softened a bit. And I intend for there to be free form plantings all around the edges, eventually.

[applestar]

Since this is sturdy, you could probably just put planks to temporarily bridge across the top (I picture two planks cutting off the corners) if you look at my pallet sided raised bed thread and pics, the "skids" that I cut up to put against the fence, may be just the thing. Offered for free or for low $ on Craigslist around here.

[rainbowgardener]

Since this is sturdy, you could probably just put planks to temporarily bridge across the top (I picture two planks cutting off the corners) if you look at my pallet sided raised bed thread and pics, the "skids" that I cut up to put against the fence, may be just the thing. Offered for free or for low $ on Craigslist around here.

Haven't really thought this through yet, but one possibility is putting in a few paver stepping stones from the inside corner almost to the middle. With that in place, I should be able to reach everything.

[Susan W]

Just a note or thought on those smaller 4 x 4 beds FWIW. Looks great on paper...... In reality a pain in the pituey, and even worse for mowing and edging. One 4 x 8 much easier to maintain than 2 separate 4 x 4's. With 4' wide can reach in from either side.

As you add trees, shrubs and beds, the fancy riding mower will become obsolete, and you'll need a regular mower. As mentioned elsewhere, I have a battery weed trimmer and it's great for the garden edging etc. I know others hate them, but I think they are great for regular yards (and more powerful ones are coming out on the market)

[rainbowgardener]

Yup, I told my partner when she started shopping for the riding mower that we wouldn't be needing it for long, that I had plans to get rid of most of the half acre of grass. But she didn't want to deal with the grass in the meantime. Oh well. Bought it off craigslist, we can sell it that way too. With any luck, we won't lose money on the deal.

We have a rechargeable battery electric push mower that we've been using for around the edges and a weed whacker. I think we will be fine with those.

[StephenH]

I love gardening too. But my mother is passionate about it. Her system of plant now and all space is for a new plant can drive me crazy. But we do work together most of the time.

[rainbowgardener]

So here's where I am now, still building when I want to be planting!

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The top picture has in the background my one quarter of a 24' diameter circular raised bed out of interlocking concrete blocks, that was pictured earlier in this thread. I really wanted to have places to plant this spring, so I quit working on that for awhile and built the wooden ones. Two of them were just built today and still need to be sanded and stained/ sealed.

The other quarters of the circle will have to wait until after I get these filled and planted. I am closing in on being ready to do that!

The bottom picture has one of the horses from the ranch behind us in the background. (click to enlarge)

Not as much a blank slate as it used to be, though there are still LOTS more projects I have in mind.... gazebo, patio, pond and waterfall, chicken coop, fish tank .... dream big!

[applestar]

You have been busy! Looking good!

I know all this is a lot of work, and you are going to have to adapt your knowledge of how to assess the conditions and growing techniques and methods to the new garden and climate, but I'm sure you are up to the challenge

I think when I'm trying to spot weeds or pest bugs, I have to sort of visualize sliding on a new visual filter over my optics, then all of a sudden, those weeds or pests come into focus. I'm thinking you will be needing new filters for things that are specific to your new location....

[imafan26]

Since you are in a slightly warmer zone, will you be trying anything new?

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, lots of new things I can grow, with more space and warmer zone: I'm thinking about a dwarf palm tree for the front yard, once I get around to doing something with the front yard. I planted two apple trees and will soon plant two peach trees. I've never done fruit trees before (except paw paw). That's more a difference of having more space than zone. I'm really excited about being able to grow rosemary and ginger in the ground and not bring them in for winter. I want a fig tree and a banana tree and a camellia bush. I want to grow artichokes in my perennial patch (along with the asparagus and strawberries I used to grow). I already planted a serviceberry (again a question of space, they would grow in Ohio). Crepe myrtle and azaleas/ rhododendrons are standards around here. I actually did have a couple of azaleas in Cincinnati, but between my alkaline soil there and the cold, they barely survived.

Other things I am thinking about, but I know my list is way too long: dwarf southern magnolia, narrow leaf crabapple, cherry laurel, red buckeye, fetterbush, beautyberry, summersweet, dwarf fothergilla, florida anise tree.

[Susan W]

Oh my! You may be a tad warmer than OH, but not in the Gulf Coast tropics!
Most of our herbs and veggies introduced. Now, as I recall, you would prefer natives for the other plants and shrubs. Palms not winter hardy. FL anise, do check, I think iffy. Banana, ginger (not native) need brought in. Cherry laurel? Beware, it likes itself and can be everywhere! (trust me) . Crepe myrtle common, not native and a horrible invasive scale is getting in it.

[rainbowgardener]

I do try to grow native plants as far as landscaping. However as far as growing food that would be very limiting. My food growing is only in the raised beds or containers which helps keep them from spreading. Ginger and banana fall in that category.

Saw palmetto, dwarf palmetto, needle palm, cabbage palm are all native in GA. I know I am in very north GA, so just because something is native in parts of GA, doesn't mean it is native or even hardy in my locale. But in these global warming times, we often can and maybe should be planting things from a zone higher or so. They are starting to plant olive trees and other mediterranean stuff in England.

[rainbowgardener]

Here's how those beds pictured above are looking now!

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So I have one more of these to fill and plant and then the big quarter circle bed which is more or less the area of 1.5 of the 8x4 beds, but deeper, so will take a lot of filling.

After these are all planted, then I will go back to working on what I am now calling Stonehenge, building the circle beds.

I put a small potato patch in at the south end of the deck (about 6x4), but I want to make that bigger. I want to plant flower seeds all along the fence line (as well as mixing some more in with the veggies). I have a ton of containers to fill and plant. .... Gardeners never lack for something to do!!

Bottom bed has a row of purple dragon carrots left to right across the top, then a row of lettuce, three tomato plants across the middle, then a row of mixed lettuces, then a row of regular carrots. Some parsley and a marigold popped in at the ends. You can see I started mulching around tomato plants. It's my mixed mulch of grass clippings, some pulled weeds, fall leaves. The lettuce and carrots are too tiny to mulch yet. If I find time to run some brush through the chipper-shredder, I may put some wood chips on top of the other mulch.

Top bed has three more tomato plants with nine broccoli plants along the edges, plus a little parsley and a marigold.

Right hand bed has half rows of peas (sugar snap on one side, regular on the other), kale , chives, cabbage, spinach, swiss chard, dill.

Square bed in the middle has silver queen corn. I have pole beans soaked that I will plant next to the corn plants today. I have heard and written about three sisters plantings for years, but this will be my first time to actually try it. In this 4x4 bed I think I will plant ONE squash plant in the middle, let it wind around and then trail out over the bed into the path.

The last 8x4 when filled, I will plant as two 4x4's. One will have peppers mixed in with some basil, chives, onion sets. The other will be another three sisters, with regular (not silver queen) corn.

I will keep filling in with more herbs and flowers as I go and then the bed with all the cool weather stuff will be replanted later.

[applestar]

[pinksand]

It's looking great RBG!

[rainbowgardener]

Thanks everyone! It's coming along. It will be a work in progress for a long time, but the yard is already a lot more interesting looking than when it was a big flat lawn!

There's a native plant sale here the weekend of 4/15-16, I'm hoping to score a few more shrubs and flowers. In the meantime, I planted a bunch of flower seeds along the side fence line and planted a bunch of containers on the deck.

[hvinodh]

nice plan RBG.,
The plan was looking very attractive and impressive.,

[rainbowgardener]

here's some of the flowers on the deck

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Since these pictures were taken, there are more containers done and more herbs popped in all the containers. There's also nasturtium seeds planted in some of them, so hopefully they will continue to get more floriferous.

So far re herbs I have mint, lavender, fennel, dill, french tarragon, oregano, green and red basil, sage, rosemary, lemon thyme, lemon balm. Yes there's parsley too for parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme!

[applestar]

I forgot to start basil seeds! (but fortunately not too late )


....everything looks great @rainbowgardener. I bet the place is starting to look more like home now with your deck of flowers coming alive possibly in familiar pots. I love and am envious of your "homesteading" plans with the chicken coop and fishpond. It's going to be SO much fun!

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, they are all pots I brought from Cincinnati, so a little sense of continuity!

[rainbowgardener]

new update on the raised beds:

All of them are planted. The back half of the left hand one has a second planting of corn, which is just now starting to sprout.

I've started doing a little mulching, but there is a lot more to go.

The chairs in the back are around a fire "pit" (which isn't exactly a pit, since it stands on legs). Eventually there will be a little patio and gazebo there, but in the meantime we just sit around the fire.

[rainbowgardener]

In a different thread I posted an inspiration picture of fence line plantings:





For reality sake, I thought I should show what it is looking like now:

On that fence line, I have mullein, ironweed, coneflower, coreopsis, black eyed susan, sweetspire shrub, salvia; seedlings of marigold, cosmos, zinnia and others; bee balm, anise hyssop and probably a couple others I'm not remembering. But all of it is baby and not pretty yet. The sticks are just so Jamie doesn't mow them down with the lawn mower.

It will take a couple more seasons before it even approaches the inspiration picture. But come back in 2020!!

I don't have a lot of money, so what I have instead is patience!

[rainbowgardener]

I can come up with wonderful ideas way faster than I can implement them!

So the very back corner (northwest) has a huge old tree. Looks like this:

Those chairs are sitting around a little free standing fire pit, but everything is just sitting there. Grass doesn't grow there at all, because too shady. I've thought for awhile it should have a little patio and gazebo/ pergola. How about one like this:



placed diagonally across the corner, to break up the rectangularity of the yard some more....

Think I could DIY it?

[rainbowgardener]

Thought I'd show this overview of how the blank slate has changed:

that was last Oct

Here's a similar view now:



and here's the quarter circle bed filled. I have seeds soaking to plant in it!

[rainbowgardener]

So I planted the quarter circle with corn and beans and squash. Since the season is so advanced, I didn't do it three sisters style, but planted everything at once. A couple circles of corn in the middle, a double row of beans down each flat side (kidney beans on one side, soy beans on the other) and a row of winter squash along the arc in back.

[rainbowgardener]

So this was that fence line planting three weeks ago:




here it is now:





It has a row of zinnias, a baby sweetspire shrub, bee balm, anise hyssop, annual salvias, purple coneflower.

Obviously has a long way to go yet, but at least you can tell it is there. I will keep planting in it and the stuff in it will get bigger and eventually it will look like a flower bed.

[applestar]

I like how you echoed the circular raised bed that you are building.

...it would be fun if your neighbor would make a mirror image and complete the circle....

[rainbowgardener]

The idea is eventually there will be plantings all along the fence line in some kind of irregular, sinusoidal curve..

I like your idea thought! Unfortunately, at this point that house is vacant, being rehabbed. It has been vacant, being rehabbed the whole 8 months + that we have been here. ...

[rainbowgardener]

update on fence line plantings:







The one at the back (pics 2 & 3) has ironweed, zinnias, mullein, coreopsis, ditch lily, black eyed susan, asters, more ironweed, Queen Anne's lace, jewelweed. The ironweed, ditch lily, Q.A. lace, jewelweed, I dug up from roadsides, not clear yet if all of it will survive transplant.(I always say I'm the only gardener I know that digs up weeds and brings them home! ) The mullein, coreopsis, blackeyed susan, and some of the ironweed came with me from Cincinnati. The zinnias are from seed and the asters from a native plant sale.

Next year I will have a few more plantings and all of this stuff will have filled out and there won't be all that bare dirt!

[applestar]

That looks nice! And you have plenty of room to expand and play as they get bigger and multiply.

[rainbowgardener]

Yup! eventually it will probably be bigger, but I didn't want to set myself too huge a task to start with, especially since we are now into summer heat and the hours I can be out in the yard are a lot more limited.