{Backyard} Raised Beds

Hello Friends! I hope you are all doing well and staying happy and healthy.

Awhile back, my dad and I made raised beds for my back patio. After a lot of discussion, we chose to set them on the concrete as there's plenty of patio space and it allowed for an easier build. We still had to deal with slanting concrete and a few other issues, but nothing that wasn't dealt with. Lots of pictures so enjoy. If we're friends on Facebook, you've seen most or all of these!

So you can see the photos are from a few different days as things have grown. Even our grass is now growing better, which is crazy because the chickens are confined to one area and the dogs to another. But the garden is doing great. There's a tomato, cucumbers, tomatillos, a few random plants from seeds, and a bunch of flowers. I added the blue bird bath after realizing it wasn't being used in Lily's Garden. I mad continue to add a few pots to the backyard but it won't be right now.

The next "phase" is to buy a few 1/2 whiskey barrels and put 4x4 posts in them with hooks. The bottoms will be planted with flowers and the tops will have strings of lights connecting them, making a big square around the patio. It'll be a great addition and I can't wait to see it all finished.

Another thing on my to do list (and it's been there for awhile), is that stupid shed and hopefully the bushes in front too. I'll finish painting the shed at some point but those bushes need to go! They don't flower or produce anything. They are big and ugly and currently also growing poison ivy. I'll either replace with something flowering and pretty or functional like blueberry bushes. But it's in the chicken yard, so I'll have to be careful with what I choose.

{Back Yard} Bug Hotel

Hello again friends!

I posted about my Back Yard Garden Refresh and how I moved some things around. In the middle of moving the actual garden bed areas, I wanted an area to set up a bug hotel. For the past couple years, as they are becoming more popular, I'd see them all over the place and knew that I wanted one. Well, I had this old metal dog crate that was missing the top (or bottom, whatever), and so I decided to repurpose it. It's definitely a work in progress as I need a lot of the "extras" but I was using what I had on hand. 

I started by placing a divider, which some random thing in my shed. I don't think it went to this dog crate, but it was something I've always had at the house. 

I added the terracotta pots as they both have cracks in them and I don't use them for actual planters. I figured that if they continued to break down more, the small pieces could fall through the bottom of the crate. The metal piece leaning next to the planters is something weird from my shed. I honestly have no clue what is is but I thought I'd throw that in there too. 

I moved the two plastic terracotta pots from the South Side Garden as the plants inside had died so I can redo that this summer. They may have flowers, they may have raspberries or herbs, who knows!?

The thing sitting on top of the crate are dried loofahs that stayed outside all winter. I figured that their little holes would be good for bugs. I shoved a small one in the small terracotta pot. 

I stole the U shaped log from my parents' farm and added some random wood pieces from my shed. The little bricks in the back are old stepping stones that broke, and I'd like to add a shelf tower on top using small pieces of wood. 

And above is what I've stopped at. I'll add more twigs and wood from my yard, plus I need to grab things like pine cones and other natural elements. Mulch and broken pots are underneath to fill the space as I put the crate on bricks to create a space under it. 

What do you think? Have you made a bug hotel? If so, what have you put in it? I have a little bee hotel that was bought and hung on a fence in another part of the yard. I wonder if I should move it above this area and make a little collection, or leave it where it is? 

{Back Yard} Garden Refresh

Hello Friends!

Way before Corona hit the world, I've been planning on doing a little makeover to my backyard garden. It was expanded last year after finding a ton of free rocks on the curb nearby the house. After three trips home with them, two beds were created. The garden soon took over and it was out of control, especially the loofah plants. But it always looked bad. The grass died, luckily, and it was just needing some help.

Before, looking towards the garage. I had everything but the mulch on hand, so it was just a day's worth of labor and $20 worth of mulch. The day was on the chillier side but look at that bright, blue sky! 

Before, looking towards the shed (kind of). The galvanized container got shifted to the far right and I had moved the cattle panel, not pictured, away from the fence to put somewhere else. All the rocks near the fence were also moved by yours truly. It was a nice arm workout. 

And because I hate working with gloves, although I probably need to get some, my hands got dirty. 

 And after, looking at the garage. Some day maybe the garage will be fixed up with different siding. The front and sides are brick but this extension was wrapped in this weird fake brick junk that looks like shingles. It works for the time being and may just be covered up with a trellis or something. Suggestions welcomed! It's West facing but gets a lot of South afternoon light. 

So, with the help of about 10 bags of mulch (the $2 kind from Walmart), and reusing all the stepping stones that I had been piling up as other parts of the yard were being changed, I created the above photos. I moved the galvanized rectangular raised bed form and loaded it up with compost and dirt that had settled from the first time it was back there. It now houses a blackberry or raspberry plant (it was new last year and never produced so I can't remember). It's spiky as can be though, so who knows if it'll stay here or get some trellis help or something. Gardens are always changing here. I may still move the rocks that run parallel to the fence to a different area of my yard, but time will tell.

I then moved two terracotta pots back next to my new bug hotel that I'm working on as the plants that were in them on the South Side Garden died. I thought they looked nice by the fence. I then moved a terracotta succulent (or strawberry?) planter to the bug hotel as it's never grows anything on one side and would be a nice way to block some chunky chickens from devouring all the bugs. 

I'll be back to post about the bug hotel as it's a work in progress. I think it's a good start and after some more additions, it'll be a great space for our buggy friends. 

{Back Yard} Dog House Garden

Hello! I'm back again with another garden update - this time with the backyard area, that I'll call "the dog house garden" although we never really call it that. Do you name your garden spaces? We have Lily's Garden, the "South Side Garden" (which I only use as it's on the south side of the house, we sometimes call it "the garden outside the TV room window"), and then there is the backyard, which includes a bunch of other spaces. It can get confusing. 

Anyway... the doghouse, which is definitely used more by chickens in the rain than any of my dogs, was the original piece in this area. It went to a large tree years ago (to the right of the picture above) but it came down years ago after a bad ice storm. I then sent out a plea for large galvanized containers and my parents found them all (minus the little square one) from a farmer they knew. If I could have more of them, they'd be used as raised beds in a veggie garden. Some day... The little square one was my grandmother's. 

I made this space years ago and it fell into "needs work" category but not high on our lists as the backyard gets ignored. But I bought more bags of mulch than I needed for Lily's Garden so I decided to spruce it up. I had already started by weeding it pretty extensively. Truth be told, it needs more help but you can't see it in this picture. I'm also thinking of adding a tall Japanese maple in the back corner where we haven't had luck growing other things. 

See those containers on the stairs to nowhere? The painted ones are from a friend (hi Candace!) and they finally have some transplanted plants in them. The other two are just random ones we've collected and put up here. 

Most of the supplies for this garden were free - from the galvanized containers to the rocks (taken from my parent's farm) to the gravel (from our front yard before we redid our sidewalks) to the plants (mostly from other plants and some from the farm). I did buy some lavender as my chickens won't touch it. The doghouse was made by my dad and his students when he taught construction. The stone borders were leftovers from a project at my parents' house. Not too bad for a mostly free area, right? 

Now you can view all "Dog House Garden" posts here. 

{Back Yard} Rock Garden

Once upon a time, 10 years ago, I had a rock garden with pretty cacti and succulents. 

The building above is the back of our garage. It's an extension and only part of it has the fake brick siding (that looks like shingles). The entire garden itself has concrete borders and we removed the rotten wood (minus one very stubborn post). 

Then life happened.

I'm not going to lie guys, sometimes I miss when this garden was a cactus garden and not our vegetable garden. The only surviving plants are some of the sedum and the hens and chicks. 

Everything else died (thankfully for the prickly pear!). 

So let's take a walk down memory lane, ok?

The prickly pear, above, was the original plant in the garden. It took up over 1/3 of the whole space and was a nightmare to deal with. We ended up removing all but the few pieces in the pot. Those few pieces eventually grew to fill the pot. We kept it until the pot basically fell apart and it had popped one too many balls for our kids. We no longer have one piece of it, thankfully. It's a fun, pretty plant if in the right spot (like my neighbor's driveway or at my parents' house) but not in my backyard. 

One of my favorites, above, was the flapjack cactus (succulent?). Our local nursery still sells them and it *almost* came home with me the other day. I'm seriously running out of room though so I'm not sure where it would go in the winter. 

Let me tell you about the flower, above... it was horrible. Beautiful, but smelled like death. We knew that going in but hearing it and smelling it were two different things. It eventually died and I'll never have another again. Pretty though. 

I think next summer I'll make a spot somewhere for some more cacti. I have no idea where they will live in the winter, but I'll find a place. I want another big, tall one like the photo above (you can see the full shot of it at the top of this post). 

Do you have cacti? Succulents? We have a lot of sedum and a few cacti throughout our yard and house but I can always fit in more, right??