Building The Pantry Garden
Hello again! Here in Green Lake, WI the sun has been shining pretty consistently with highs between 45 - 55, but the lows are still hovering a little over freezing. Have you been itching to plant your vegetables & flowers? Have you been planning your garden and flower beds? Have you started turning over your soil? Have you started augmenting it? Have you been oogling the Spring flowers on display at your garden centers and itching to buy some? Have you, have you, have you? I am sure you have, because I sure have been doing it! When will it be time to plant (at least the root crops)?!? I am running out of room under my grow lights!
Under The Pantry Garden tab, I wrote all about my new garden, installing a well and next steps. Well, The Pantry Garden is almost complete. It required alot of planning and some blood, sweat and tears (well, no blood).
We decided that the garden would be 40 by 16 feet. Given that I am planting in The Victory Garden again, I don’t REALLY need it that large. But with the pandemic over (yes, it IS over!) and we are getting our lives back to normal, we will be having alot of overnight company, happy hours, dinner parties & cocktail parties. I can’t wait to reconnect with you and everyone else again! So I need to prepare to feed a crowd. We are happiest when we are feeding people. And besides, once the garden is built, I can’t really expand it! The land is slightly sloped and while I could certainly plant there as it is, there would be alot of water run-off which could potentially over water some of my vegetables. So my husband measured the length & width of the slope to make it level with the rest of the garden, and then he calculated that we needed to add 12 yards of topsoil. Really? That much? Oh my goodness! Before the dirt was delivered though, I thought I should try to kill the grass. So we tarped the area as best we could (it looked like a patchwork quilt) for two weeks. It was alot of work. Those rocks were heavy. Did it work? Sadly no. Oh well!
We tried to guide the dumptruck to the middle of the garden to dump the soil in sections so that we would have less to move around. That was easier said than done! Have you ever seen 12 yards of topsoil? Now you have. Because we don’t know anybody who has a backhoe & we knew that moving it with an attachment on our friend’s four by four would be nearly impossible because it is soooo much dirt, we had to do it the old fashioned way — using a shovel. We couldn’t even use a wheelbarrow because of the awkward position and weight of the soil. It was going to be a long few days! After a few hours, it was time to take a break.
We spread as much topsoil as we could about 1 foot from each edge of the garden so that the posts could be installed. As you can see from the ridge on the left side, there is still plenty of soil that we need to move to level the garden. Once the entire fence is built we will move the soil where it belongs. And then, FINALLY, I can plant my root crops. I continue to pray for patience because patience is a virtue and that is one virtue that I seem to lack.
So while you are waiting for the perfect temperature to plant, I hope you are enjoying the sunshine and the outdoors! This Spring will be especially sweet because the world is re-opening and we are regaining some of our personal freedoms. I hope your stores, restaurants, churches, movie theatres, and your other favorite spots are opening and that your life is becoming normal again. If you have already gotten your vaccine, that is fabulous! If not, be patient, as your time will be here before you know it. Stay well, and go play in some dirt!