Repurposed, recycled, reused, free vegetable garden

I schemed and planned and dreamed of a vegetable garden all those months on that truck...I ordered seeds and carefully kept them under my bunk...I would take them out in my free time and sort them, look them up on the internet and plan my garden...

I looked up gardens pictures by the dozens....the one garden that stood out and really made me dream was a Potager(pot-a-jzay) garden...the kitchen gardens from France...they mix architecture and beauty...flowers and herbs in with their vegetables...

Well then...this did not look like anything like my saved pictures...how does one go about making a beautiful, picturesque Potager out of this mess?

I admit, it was really hard for me to get past the 3ft tall grass and overgrown shrubs and trees...the piles of garbage...

I knew for sure I wanted it close to the house...with a fence and arbors...I wanted it lined with flowers with scrambling vines growing up those arbors...I must have mapped it out ten times on graph paper during that long winter...it's kind of hard to see a bountiful garden thru 4ft of snow when you are looking out the window in December...it was hard to picture it growing out of the overgrown grass!

 The dirt here is clay with plenty of rocks...and improving soil takes a long time...so in my research I found an amazing technique called sheet mulching...now, in Montana, I was no stranger to using newspaper to suppress weeds, what I didn't know was that newspaper fed the worms who in turn, tilled up the soil and fed it...I also never correlated the fact that in a forest...all the fallen leaves, needles and debris turned into dirt that was rich and could grow anything! Sheet mulching mimics this process and in turn gives you a raised bed with terrific drainage...and in time, turns into rich, black dirt...well, I didn't have time...I wanted a garden now!

The spring in the UP came earlier than usual...by the end of March all of the snow had melted...much to my delight!  I got out in the yard and thatched, cleaned, mowed and dug! I was ready to sheet mulch with a vengeance! I had come up with a plan and laid out my garden with string and stakes...I studied the pictures and I wanted something unusual...I decided on U shaped garden beds....there was only one problem...sheet mulching takes organic material...a layer of brown(straw or dried leaves,etc) a layer of green (fresh grass clippings or chopped weeds,etc) and all this is alternated until you get to be about 24 inches tall...well, in March in the UP...nothing is growing and I was in the wrong season for leaves...I could probably get straw but I was loathe to spend any money...I really wanted to practice the principles I had started with the house...free, cheap, recycled, reused...repurposed....vintage...

More research...I found that the next town over had a city compost pile...it was worth a look...

The city compost pile was beautiful...you drive down a 1/2 mile dirt road in the middle of a heavily wooded parcel...complete with a large deer population and pop out into a clearing...there is a separate place for brush and one for grass and leaves...

I drove past the brush and came upon a 60ft x 300ft  pile of compost...this compost had bags and bags of "stuff" thrown all around the sides...looked like whoever didn't want to pay to dump at the transfer station dumped everything they had here...old windows, bricks, block, building material...piles of bark...bales of straw!  Oh man...I was in love....it was like hitting the jack pot!

I walked around the pile in awe...the plastic bags really got on my nerves...that is just plain wrong...you are supposed to dump them out and take them with you...but in this case? I was thankful!   I stuffed the back of my rig with bag after bag of leaves...they were already shredded! Bags of dried grass...corn stalks....everything you cold possible want to sheet mulch a raised garden bed...

I took the first load home and went back for compost....I backed my truck up directly to the pile and had to immediately go forward again...the top layer of the heap was mostly garbage and "new" material...I had to rake a space approximately 2ft deep and 4ft wide to get at the good compost underneath...I backed my truck up again and started shoveling...as I shoveled I sifted out bricks...bras, old pants...plastic bags...chunks of wood...even food containers...the compost smelled wonderful...it was steaming hot and black....I shoveled an entire truck load...

When I got home I dumped it all on a tarp...

at first, I had thought turning over the top layer of crabgrass and putting it upside down would help with breakdown since I wanted to plant in it soon...I did one side...that was enough for me...I am glad I did it on the one side, though,  because the ground was so uneven and it really helped to make the beds level...water was channeling a small ditch to the back of the property...I used a lot of the sod I dug up to put it that ditch..I filled the crevice with sod chunks turned upside down...it eventually broke down and now is just part of the lawn but it really helped with drainage...and that ditch is no longer there...

The ditch was where I wanted to put my fence...

I had asked the neighbor who was a chef in town if he had any cardboard...yes...he sure did! and he brought me cardboard until I said ENOUGH, Thank you! I had a whole trailer full...I layed down two layers of cardboard and soaked them with the hose...next came a layer of brown grass...soak with the hose...then a 2 inch layer of city compost..2 inch layer of shredded leaves...two inch layer of compost....of course, soaked with the hose...but I had no green...so...more compost...this process took me about 3 weeks...gathering and shoveling and finding things to make a raised bed...

it got to the point that my Honey and I had Friday date night...two little Ceasar pizza's and a cruise thru the city compost pile...I know, romantic, huh? THAT is when you know the honeymoon is over...but it worked for us...well, me...being a zealot about my garden and all...he was very accommodating...

I netted everything I needed from that pile...including bricks to line my front beds...the ladder, the flag pole...all of the "architecture" in my garden for my plants to scramble up...and fence posts...a new wheel barrow...

The rocks to line the beds  came from the back of the property...it is was common in the old days to line your property with rocks to mark boundaries but I think whoever owned this property before, used them to make a garden...there was Lilly of the Valley, Phlox and many other flowers growing in the 6ft tall weeds back there...and my Honey dug out big honkin' rocks for weeks and hauled them up to line the beds...

I had the compost tested at the county extension agents office...it came back deficient in Magnesium which Epsom salts scattered in the dirt took care of...you never know what someone has sprayed with or put on their plants....and after nurturing 600 of the little things all winter, I didn't want to plant them in DEATH dirt!

I planted seeds in this garden bed...I only planted the ones I didn't really care about...the ones that I could give up to experimentation...I didn't really think anything would grow in it...

My Honey built the Easel out of scrap...A masterpiece waiting for Mother Nature...

The strawberry/herb bed is made out of more of the garage...

I got this cute little garden cart out of pile destined for the dump...

Watching little green things shoot out of the dirt was extremely satisfying...and as you all know, I am inundated with produce this year! I had better get back out there! The finished garden tomorrow...