Monday musings: new garden ideas

request : have corrugated cardboard boxes to recycle?...
I can use them... Acorn Cottage needs mulch (to kill grass)
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Has been a rather busy weekend; with three folks staying here, the Acorn Cottage bed-n-breakfast has been full up.

There have been interesting conversations, tasty meals (both here and in various favorite restaurants), and a modicum of progress on furthering food resilience. Beth and Karen were here just for one overnight; my friend Sharon (who was here for three days) is a master gardener, and enjoys thinking well and deeply about integrating edible food into the life/activity of the home.

Besides our field trip yesterday, one thing S really wanted to do whilst visiting here was to actually move me forward; we chose to work on the north side yard...

looking from my back door towards the backyard

This area has been just a walkway for the last five years. The assets are that it does get a fair bit of sunlight, it is already protected from the hens predations, and I walk by there several times a day; our plan developed to take advantage of all three of these... some of the space along the fence will be used to grow tender greens: chard, mesclun/lettuce, arugala, kai-lan or mizuna, etc. The five (inherited/gifted) "earthbox" self-watering planters have been moved to this spot, set atop cardboard to help keep the grass from next door from further enroachment.

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before and after... looking towards the back door from the chicken gate
walking onions are currently growing in one of the boxes,
they are a great choice for easy allium self sufficiency

In addition, we worked out a longer-range plan for the backyard here, somewhat different than my previous design, that will both work with the current infrastructure and allow for future changes for increased productivity and beauty. My original plan was a lot of little square and rectangular beds, and the new plan is much more "organic" and rounded. There is nothing like bouncing ideas back and forth with someone who has a very different aesthetic view to spark new ideas!