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Hey everyone. I recently bought some property and want to turn this crappy old empty lot into a beautiful, bountiful, prospering garden.
First here is the property I am dealing with:
You are looking at my house. The lot between us and the house is what I am aiming to reinvigorate.
I will guide you from left to right as seen from standing by the house:
So there's some perspective, as to what exactly I'm dealing with.
What I've done so far:
- cleaned up all the clutter and garbage
- raked up all the matted-down dead grass
Underneath it all living grass remains, though not very thick.
Where do I go from here?
I am a first time gardener. I have 2-4 hours of everyday to dedicate to a garden. I know very little about the steps I should take in restoring this land.
Can I just roto-till the size garden I want? What size should I start with?
So basically, seeing what you see with these pictures, and knowing that I'm a total gardening noob with nothing but a newly found passion and plenty of time, what should I do?
I am in Illinois and can't really get to 'tilling' or planting until mid-late may due to personal constraints.
Thank you for taking the time and I look forward to joining in many gardening discussions to come!
Wow Tom, that's a pretty big mess you've got on your hands.
There are several important questions I would ask of you:
What are your garden goals? To survival garden, victory garden, or farm the whole thing?
What is the quality of the underlying soil?
It looks like there may be a possibility of soil contamination considering all the industrial type junk laying around.
If it were me, the first thing I would do would be to build some raised boxes above ground and fill them up with some decent soil/compost/fill and garden in those this year. Start small with something you can easily handle and control while you're learning and cleaning up the rest of that mess. That should all keep you busy for the 2011 season.
Good soil preparation is the magic key to successful gardening. It takes time and effort to build up good garden soil.
For now I'd forget the rototiller. Remove the junk, investigate the quality of the native soil, and possibly sheet mulch this season to kill the unwanted grass and weeds in the target garden area for next year.
Wow Tom, that's a pretty big mess you've got on your hands.
There are several important questions I would ask of you:
What are your garden goals? To survival garden, victory garden, or farm the whole thing?
What is the quality of the underlying soil?
It looks like there may be a possibility of soil contamination considering all the industrial type junk laying around.
If it were me, the first thing I would do would be to build some raised boxes above ground and fill them up with some decent soil/compost/fill and garden in those this year. Start small with something you can easily handle and control while you're learning and cleaning up the rest of that mess. That should all keep you busy for the 2011 season.
Good soil preparation is the magic key to successful gardening. It takes time and effort to build up good garden soil.
For now I'd forget the rototiller. Remove the junk, investigate the quality of the native soil, and possibly sheet mulch this season to kill the unwanted grass and weeds in the target garden area for next year.
Garden goals. Hmmm interesting question. I'm not familiar with the definitions of any of the options you've set forth so apparantly, so I will start there. If I had to answer what my garden goals were without researching the terminology, I would say:
I just want to learn how to garden. I want to transform a junky piece of property into a productive piece of organic earth. I eventually want to be a farmer so this is my starter pet project and I just want to do it right.
I like the idea of starting small with a few raised beds and continuing prepare the area for future use. I will look into sheet mulching (don't know what that is!)
I ask about your garden goals, because if you are just hankering after some juicy home grown tomatoes there would be no real need to dig the whole place up. Some people just want a few tomatoes and cucumbers, ya know? No need to redevelop an acre of land for a modest summer garden.
But if you're going to grow stuff in the ground in the future the weeds and grass have got to go. A rototiller will break up the soil so that it can be worked, but will not get rid of all the invasive unwanted grass and weed seeds that will sprout posthaste and take over your plantings.
Sheet mulch is the best way to go. Sheet mulch this year to clear the ground for preparation next year. Just google sheet mulching, plenty of information available.
Check with your local county extention site, they have tons of excellent information on gardening/landscaping for specific areas of the country. Your local library is also a good source of information on garden or landscape design ideas. Check and see if your community has a local gardeners group-never met gardeners that were not excited at sharing their passion and knowledge.
I would start first now that you have been cleaning up with deciding if you want any trees/shrubs or hardscaping. These are the bones of the garden that keep a property looking good even in the winter. Pay attention as you are driving around your community for the properties that you think look good then study them and see what it is that you like or think works about them. The previous posters ideas about raised beds and or sheet composting/lasagna gardening are good ones. It allows you to have more control over the gardening areas soils. I would HIGHLY recommend a soils test before you plant anything so you know what the ph of the soils are and the type of soil amendments that would be of use to your situation.
It looks like you have room for a small orchard there. I'd investigate planting a few fruit trees. Maybe berry bushes? I don't know what kind of berries are suitable for your climate, but I've been investigating "edible landscaping" for our property, and there's a lot you can do with berries. You've got nice flat vacant land there, from what I can tell. It doesn't usually take as long for berry bushes to come into their own as it does fruit trees. We bought the adjoining property at tax sale (I live in rural PA), and we planted some blueberry bushes, additional vegetable gardens, and wildflower beds that still give it a natural feeling.
Probably a good thing you can't just go out and dig-you've got a lot of decisions to make and info to gather.
definitely call the local co-operative ext office, and check the soil. Putting in raised beds is a good idea too. It'll give you a place to garden while you figure out the big picture.
keep in mind this won't be done in one year. You'll have some veggies to eat of course but an established garden takes a while to, well, establish.
The 1st yr, after planting the raised bed for quick results (relatively speaking), think about those berry bushes and/or small fruit trees. Also what about rhubarb, asparagus, strawberries.....things that don't have to be planted every year.
don't forget the local library, and if you see a garden you like, maybe stop and talk to the gardener. Best teachers are the doers.
Get some soil test kits from them so you can find out what you will be dealing with in the future.
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Learn about making compost.
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Best wishes for a fun and productive time with your new garden.
Great suggestions from everyone! I would second getting some trees planted, bushes/shrubs, not too much but a few! I think getting the soil tested in a must, and raised beds a good starting point.
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