Our Bungalow

While our yard is small, there is room for a garden. We didn’t have time to put one in last spring, so we only grew some tomatoes on four large pots on our patio this summer. A perfect place to feed the squirrels and chipmunks. Stupid squirrels.

Before

But today, Justin and I built a raised bed garden. We started by cutting the sod out (I had to sharpen my shovel for it to be of any use cutting sod. The grinding wheel comes in handy again!). And we reused the sod in our front yard along the street where there was no grass (long story involving the City of St. Paul and rotting tree roots). I’d never cut sod before and it went much better than I expected.

Justin at Work

We then arranged and leveled two layers of 4×6 posts centered against the back of the garage. We connected them where necessary and drove spikes through them into the ground so they wouldn’t move.

The finished garden is about 16 feet long and only about 20 inches wide. Stacy insisted that she didn’t want a garden that overwhelmed our relatively small yard. We’ll need to think about what we can grow vertically along the back of the garage. And how we can keep the multitude of rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels out of it. Stupid squirrels.

We filled the garden with dirt from the hole that was dug for the fish pond. It fit perfectly. Stacy even saved some “sludge” that she dredged up from the bottom of the old pond and mixed it into the soil. Yum.

After

What would a bungalow be without a garden? Now we’ll be ready for spring!