Digging the dirt

Happy May Day!

So its finally, finally warm enough here in ND where almost all of our snow is gone. Only a few piles here and there. So that means its planting time! I'm so stinkin' excited about my plans I've got going on. After 3 years living in my house and dreaming of a real in the ground garden my dreams may be coming true and soon.

Now the past 2 years I've been planting a small garden in pots on my deck. The first year I tried to use a borrowed tiller to make a real garden in the back yard but the dirt was too hard and the super grass had 4 inch root system so it was impossible to dig by hand. I've been slightly disappointed in my green thumb with containers. Now I do have a retaining wall for my daylillies and they grow amazing. So I don't think my issue is growing plants, its my lack of choice in having them in containers.

Now last fall I got to thinking about using tires to grow a few select items in the back yard. So I got a few tires all ready with newspaper and dirt for this spring. Well we had a ton of snow this winter and my backyard has up to, in a few areas, almost a foot of standing water in the low spots so my tires won't be ready until everything dries up.

Well during the winter I made a choice to try start a worm compost pile which would be partly buried. So I took out my shovel and splashed into the backyard where I thought a good spot would be, and tested the ground to see how hard it was going to be to dig a hole. To my surprise it was like a hot knife through butter. So it got me to thinking....hey I could dig my garden plot! So yesterday I marked an area and waited until my boyfriend came home from work and got his opinion on the area. He thought it looked good but there was one hitch, the old clothes line cement anchor will be in the middle of the garden and I marked a big area, maybe too big Lol.

 

This is my backyard soon to be garden plot. Please excuse my messy backyard. The tires are going to be used to grow potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, horseradish, and rhubarb (for now).

 

Now while I decide what to do in the backyard, I started a larger flower bed in front of my deck. Now this deck of mine is old and falling apart (I rent so not much I'm allowed to do with the deck) so I'm going to grow tall flowers to hide my deck. I've picked out hollyhocks, snapdragons, foxgloves, and a few others. I've got the seeds started and once the last frost is past I'll add seeds with the seedlings.

So I've been digging a 5ft x 24ft area where I'll be planting. My boyfriend even surprised me with 10 pallets from his job so I can build a flower box to make it look a tad nicer. I'm also planning on building a compost bin "house" and use what I can to start my rabbit hutch (and any other crazy project I come up with Lol)

 

This is my soon to be flower bed. Once again please excuse my mess. The big brush pile in the front was all the weeds and mystery flowers growing from last year. Like I said my deck is an eyesore so I hope the flowers hide it well.

I just checked our forecast and it'll be dropping back into the 30s til this weekend. All I can say is boo!

So anyone out there planning a garden or growing flowers? I'd love to hear!