Turning Sods For Second Garden

Starting a new garden can be exciting but it pays to keep at least one foot in the top soil otherwise you may bite off more than you can comfortably cultivate.

This may sound a bit rich bearing in mind I’ve just finished turning over an additional 30 square meters out the back. Combined the two gardens are now approximately 66 square meters. For me it’s no big deal because as mentioned in previous posts my vegetable gardening addiction began almost 35 years ago.

If however this is your first foray into the dirt try starting out with a more manageable size, say 3 square meters and see how it all pans out. When you catch the vegetable gardening bug as you undoubtedly will it’s easy to go bigger and bolder.

On the other hand it’s possible that your current level of enthusiasm could wane and you may not feel the same excitement after your first growing season.

You may feel that this “growing your own isn’t what it’s cracked up to be” or there’s just not enough of your week left to be tending veggies and pulling weeds.

Like any interest or hobby in life there’s little point if you don’t gain enjoyment and satisfaction from it.

Garden Boundaries Marked Out

Some old real estate open home sign holders and thin rope was all I needed to measure out the boundaries for garden number two. Once I decided on the garden’s location and size I set about with a sharp spade to cut the turf in to manageable pieces and turned them over. Its a good idea to work them into the garden as they will rot and break down adding further organic material to the soil. In addition to this I dug down a further spade depth to ensure there would be good garden depth plus soil that would be easily workable when its time for next springs first plantings. I believe some gardeners term this as double digging, to me it’s just hard graft.

I could have hired a rotary hoe and sped the whole process up as certain enterprising members of my family suggested but decided instead to cut and turn a little every day.
Like the first garden parts of it were hard going due a considerable number of small rocks that had to be removed, that old farm track again.

The whole job was completed in about a week.

Second Garden

Now that the hard works been done all that’s required to finish vegetable garden number two is the wooden edging and the addition of some compost and organic material. Doing this will help to increase the volume, makeup and richness of the soil.

That’s a job for another day.

Favourite Quotes:
It is utterly forbidden to be half hearted about gardening. You have got to love your garden whether you like it or not. W.C. Sellar & R.J. Yeatman - Garden Rubbish 1936