this needs no explanation: New Garden Bed!

The title says it all; I have a new garden bed that I'm very excited about. And I'll have to do a few posts on it to break it up into sections since I type so much. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures that I took while making it because I deleted them thinking that I would need the space on my card for something else. Well, on with the story!

To start with, I was unable to make a raised bed because honestly I don't have the money for it (raised bed frames at Lowes were like 100 dollars) plus I'd have to buy a ton of dirt to fill it with, and that would be very difficult, especially since I don't have a truck. Sooo I decided to go it pioneer style and hollow out a section of the ground and then fill it. I mainly made the garden for Zucchini, squash and sunflowers- plants that are difficult to grow in buckets.

To test the soil, I initially went to one section of our backyard where I wanted to plant the garden in the first place because it gets great sun and it's next to a wall so I can easily use the wall to support the sunflowers. However, upon digging in this spot a few times with the shovel, I quickly realized that digging would be difficult here since the soil was chock full of rocks and large chunks of concrete left over from the old inground pool that my landlady had filled in. I was a little disappointed because this area seemed like a perfect place for my future garden.

So then I went to the other side of our backyard, which seemed relatively free of as many rocks as the other side. The area that I chose is partially covered by shade (kind of a good thing, kind of bad) and when I tried digging with the shovel, it was much easier than I thought it would be. So I got started! I just began digging and digging. I dug through a few inches of dirt and rock, then hit a black plastic sheeting barrier, then went deeper into what seemed like a much richer sandy/clay mix. I still encountered quite a few rocks, but overall it was much easier than the other side would have been.

Rocks in the soil on the side of the yard I wanted to plant on.

Other side of the yard- looks much more promising!

Planning the garden wasn't a lot of work. I knew that I just needed enough space for my sunflowers, zucc's and the plants I had bought. Here is my plan:

My compass is wrong. Top part should be South. I'm tired!!

I put the sunflowers out in full sun, because I figured they would need it the most, as well as my peppers. My Zucc's are now in the shade mostly, and I'm not sure how that will affect their yield.

Digging was SUCH grueling work. I didn't measure out the garden, but I planned a general small rectangle that wouldn't overwhelm me and cause too much havoc in the backyard. I had asked my landlady once before if I could do stuff back there and she had said yes, but I never asked her a second time just to make sure it would be okay....so yeah....if she had gone back there and seen half the yard dug out I'm sure she would have done a back flip. Plus, I didn't want to overwhelm myself. So it's kind of small, but the area is big enough for me to actually lie down in.

I dug a little more than a foot deep. The very spot I had chosen used to be where some kind of palm plant used to be, so I hit upon old roots that made work even harder. I pulled up all kinds of strange dead roots that looked like underground hornet nests. It was a real excavation! I also encountered an old piece of poured concrete that must have been where someone had put a metal post in the ground. So it kind of takes up space, but not too badly.

Unfortunately I only have pictures now of filling it in with dirt, but you get the idea.

Different dirts and mixing. I'm adding lots of peat moss, regular vegetable soil mix and some of the dirt I took from the ground.

You can see the strong shadow cast by the wall.

Can you see it? It's way over there by the wall! I spread the dirt out around it.

FINALLY all filled.

Here is another shot of the soil raked away.

The whole process was very tiring. I would work on it after work, but after a few days I became completely worn out and needed rest. It took a week longer than I thought it would, so I had to emergency transplant my sunflowers and zucchini. NOT good. Eventually after much hard labor, I finally hollowed out the entire area and then began filling it with dirt. I filled it with roughly 2 bags of peat moss which my mom had recommended, some of the natural clay sand soil, and many bags of good vegetable growing soil from Lowes. Putting the natural soil back in was difficult because it was (and still is) full of small and big rocks and clumps of old Bermuda grass. I had to do a lot of sifting. And it took FOREVER just to fill the entire bed completely. Finally one evening at sundown I finished it. I then once again repotted my sunflowers and zucchini for a SECOND time to their new home. I wouldn't be surprised if those plants struggle because I put them through tons of stress.