The grounded garden (just made that up) is one of my planned projects this year. It’s currently in pretty rough shape:

The landscaping stones were originally purchased to be used as a shed foundation and we quickly realized that we would need to go an alternate route. So my husband placed them around the garden so I could have a bit of a pathway. The truth is, I haven’t used them as such because they aren’t level with the ground so it’s a bit awkward trying to step on them. I feel like I’ll roll an ankle or something. I think maybe we will relocate them to make a landing pad for our recycling and trash bins.

The overgrowth has gotten a bit unruly but that’s because I need to better define the space. Right now, I have some pressure treated landscape timbers framing it out because I needed to make sure my husband could easily mow around the whole thing.

The inside of the boxes have seen some grass and weed growth but it’s all since died in the cold. I think I’ll redo these raised beds and use metal or try and find some cedar boards. Do you see the empty space to the right? I think I may extend the garden into that area. I picture a small greenhouse or just filling it all with some native wildflowers. We’ll see…

The plan is to eventually put a fence all around the garden and have a single (maybe two?) entrance with a gate that’s framed by an arbor. The whole thing will be surrounded by a flower bed as well. I’m really aiming to transform this whole backyard with more flowers and shrubs than just empty grass. Now that the pool is in, we can focus on the rest of the yard. The garden is going to be my passion project. Like the rest of the house, I know it will take a few years and trial and error to see what works best.

There’s a landscape timber underneath all of those weeds. Interestingly enough, this area gets the strongest weeds. I don’t know why but the rest of the yard is grass and over here I get all sorts of crap. I was thinking of doing regular edging this year and upgrading to a fence next year. Im also not sure if I will rake up the mulch and lay down stone instead. I love the look of stone but well, not the price 🤣. That may be a next year upgrade once I have the raised beds laid out like I want to.

Oh and those 5 gallon buckets need to go. They’re filled with concrete and are a remnant of a failed DIY string light planter situation. Once I figure out how to dispose of concrete, I’ll get rid of them.

I think first things first is clearing out the weeds and dismantling the old boxes. The old pine will go in as the base layer in the new beds I’ll be purchasing. It’s a lot of work but I’m excited to at least have the garden foundation complete so I can get to the part I love best which is the actual gardening.