Call Me Johnny

Just for the record, my name's not Johnny.  But I feel like it could be today (as in Appleseed, get it?).  Yesterday, 4 days after I ordered them from Fast-Growing-Trees.com, I received a box in the mail with 2 little apple trees.  Really, they're no more than sticks but to my untrained eye they look happy and healthy.  One is a Scarlet Sentinel and the other a North Pole.  My grandparents have columnar trees like this in their yard and, though they look kind of unnatural and odd, they seemed like just the right thing to plant against this wall, under the powerlines.

Following directions I found online I dig holes in my new raised bed, planted my little trees, and watered them.  Hopefully they will take root, grow, and eventually make some nice fruit!  The planting process seemed simple.  Too simple.  I'm always suspicious of things that are too simple because it usually means I'm missing some critical detail.  Hopefully I did it right.

I hopefully they should be joined by friends soonish, one columnar tree in each 4 foot section of the bed.  There are lots of columnar varieties out there, and I'd like to get as many as possible, but I started with just these two because they were the ones offered by this particular nursery.  And this nursery seemed to have the best reviews online, the most responsive customer service, and offered a 1 year warranty.  The warranty was a big point for me because I've never planted a tree before, I live in a harsh desert, and I don't have the greenest thumb around.  If these survive the year and do well, I'll order some more varieties from some other companies.

Optimism

Progress is still painfully slow but, after years of planning and false starts, I almost have something that could be considered a garden.  It really shouldn't surprise me that it's taking so long.  The lower yard at my parents' old house, which is about the size of my yard and started in a similar condition, took a decade to turn from a weedy lot to a play-structure, patio, and garden.  And I feel like I have less ambition, experience, and resources to sink into the project.
In December my brothers helped me wall up the raised bed I sank the posts for last summer, though I neglected to take a picture of it at that stage.  And, emboldened by a sizable tax return, I filled the bed with "compost" last weekend.  With luck I should have some plants in the ground by the end of spring!  I am most looking forward to planting some small fruit trees in the bed, including a special apple tree for my daughter which should ripen around her birthday each year.
I've been warned not to plant in pure compost but I used the compost available from the city recycling center which is definitely not pure compost.  It does look like pretty good soil, though, compared to what sand in my yard.  It also cost a fifth of what the area's most reputable dealer wanted for top soil mix.

The biggest problem we encountered filling the beds was the wind.  It had been relatively calm and nice all week but on the day I had set aside for yardwork we for 60 mile per hour winds and almost no visibility due to all the dust in the air.  It felt really good to get out and do some manual labor, to fight with nature because I wanted something a certain way, to get covered in grit.

We also have a few things in pots on the front porch but I'll save those for another post.

Letting Yourself Fail

It's been a pretty tough year.  In fact, it's been pretty tough since we moved into this house.  All the gardens I had before were, by definition, temporary.  We were just going to live there for a while and, as a hobby, as an experiment, I planted some thing.  But here, things are different.  This house is our permanent home and that means any thing I do to the house, or the yard, fells permanent.  That means it has to be done right, it has to be perfect.  When the whole backyard is nothing but sand, a large blank canvas, this feeling is very intimidating.  Then anything short of perfection can't be labeled as progress, any chance of failure becomes failure.
This is how I've been feeling.
We tried several times to lay out the beds we want in the yard but they never seemed to fit quite they way they did on paper.  My ability to measure and lay out angles in the real world wasn't on par with my computer programs.  Besides, when I spray-painted the bed layout on the sandy soil it blew away within a week.
We tried actually building a bed out of cinder-block (chosen because the resulting beds would be as close to permanent as we could get) but we couldn't figure out how to pour a level concrete footing.  We tried sinking a row of blocks below the soil line instead and got frustrated by our inability to get them perfectly level and straight.
We were offered some sod, leftover from my father-in-law's lawn, and figured it wouldn't hurt to try a lawn.  Unfortunately, without a sprinkler system the watering became too much and the grass dried up and died.  I have a brand new push-mower that I got for my birthday that never even got used once.
It was all very disheartening.  I'd been working on that yard for 2 years and had nothing but a couple of filled in holes and some dead grass to show for it.  Every time I went into the yard for anything I  felt depressed.  I was ready to accept our dust-bowl of a yard, to live with it (or ignore it's existence) for the rest of my life.  There were plenty of things to do inside.  I didn't need to go outside.  I didn't need a yard.  I didn't need to garden.  It was an unnecessary waste of water anyway.
But that's silly.  I want a yard.  I like being outside.  I enjoy gardening.  I've only been working this yard for two years and, if it's as permanent as I want, I hope to continue working it for another 60.  If it is as beautiful and alive as I want, it will never be complete or finished.  It will never be perfect, it will just be continually pushing towards wonderful.
That was the flaw in my thinking.  Every failed attempt as measuring, laying out, building, and planting didn't spell failure for the yard or myself.  It was just one more thing to check off the list as a "didn't work".  Which meant that I was one step closer to finding something that would work.  Yes, it's only one step down what may be a very long road but one step at a time will get you there a lot faster than not taking any steps at all.  The only true failure would be giving up, admitting to myself that I can't do anything with that yard.  as long as I'm trying thing, even if they all fail, I'm not failing.
So this month I am celebrating renewed effort and determination.  This month I'm taking a new approach, tackling the problem from a whole new angle.  This month I've dug holes, poured concrete, and set posts for a new garden bed.  This weekend I'll start screwing boards of composite wood to it and it will, hopefully become the cornerstone on which I build my whole garden.  From this bed I can expand across my sandy lot and shape it into a productive space that I can enjoy.

Superflat Mode

With a great deal of roto-tilling, shovelling, and raking.  The yard is now pretty flat. We're finally ready to start building beds!  It's taken a lot longer than I would have liked but at about the same point that I started having free time to work on it, true summer hit and temperatures soared.  I know, excuses.

I also finally finished hauling concrete rubble to the dump. Yay.

On the greener end of things, the potted garden is doing very well.  The first tomatoes are beginning to ripen.  The first to turn red had a rot spot, but oh well.  Cucumbers have yet to produce anything but are really trying.  And the herb barrel is a wonderful riot of foliage.  It's dill really helped out a turkey I roasted a week ago.  Even the agave are doing really well!

So Far...

Alright!  My evening class is finally over so now I just have 40 hours of work to get in the way of my yard (and rising summer temperature, and general lethargic).

So! Lets see what we've accomplished so far and what we have to work with.

I measured my yard and created a general plan on Inkscape.  My wife helped me transfer some of that plan (the part pertaining to the garden beds) into the yard with stakes and string.  Basically it consists of 3 foot wide paths between 4x4 beds grouped into "T" and "L" shapes.  Here's a photo of the yard where I've attempted to highlight the strings that outline the beds.  Also, there are weeds.

I've also gathered a fair number of 18 inch square pavers (offered to my by my father-in-law) which will be perfect for the paths. I've still got another 20 or so to haul over.

Lastly, I've helped my wife plant a few things in some pots so we have some gardening to do while I build the beds. In the barrel on the left there are some herbs (Peppermint, Stevia, Fennel-leaf dill, and Spicy globe basil). Next to it is a tomato (Phoenix) and a pepper (mammoth jalapeno). On the right end is an earth-box type planter with some cucumbers (we'll see how it does). In front you can see my poor abused agaves that still seem alive, despite my neglect. There's still one pot left which will get filled with something at somepoint.

Come on summer! Lets gets stuff done!

Before Construction Comes Deconstruction

Still toiling away in the yard when I'm not working, at school, or sick.

Recently we finished pulling up the old pavers that were around the yard.  We also pulled up an old sandstone patio under-which we found an even older brick patio, which we also pulled up.

Not sure exactly what they'll get used for, but I've set aside all the usable bricks, pavers, and sandstone chunks for some future project.

Out with the Old

Progress on my new garden has been slow. but there has been progress.

Today I finally finished tearing out the concrete slab in the back corner of the yard.  Slowly, since September, I've used a pick axe, sledgehammer, and spud bar to reduce it rubble.  It was slow work because someone, whoever put it there, knew what they were doing.  It was pretty thick and reinforced with rebar and chicken wire.  Still, now I just have to dispose of the remains of the 7x4 slab.  That will clear the way for the chicken coop and, behind it, a wood pile.

Also, I've been pulling up the pavers that made paths around the yard.  This will let me start fresh in plotting out where I want my garden beds to bed.  Soon I'll get to go out with a tape measure and mark off my plans, commit to the physical world the first outline of the garden I see in my head.

But there's still a long slow road between my and my fully realized garden.  Not only will my job eat up my time and energy but, four nights a week, I'll be attending evening classes at the local community college.  Still, I hope to have at least a couple vegetable beds up and growing this coming spring.

On a different note, I found something special while working in the yard.

Clearly, my house was previously occupied by a clan of ninjas.