Spring Garden 2015

Hard for me to realize that it's been nearly a year since I posted last about my garden. It's been a busy year, with a fair sized crop coming in (about 200% Return on Investment!) and some much needed changes taking place in the garden itself.

The Chip Pile - halfway done.

First off, I got tired of battling the weeds and the slugs and snails that hid within them, so I decided it was time to do something about the chaos in between the garden beds. I went online and was first going to order wood chips from a local company; then I stumbled on a very useful website, Chip Drop, which connects arborists and gardeners. Chip Drop will deliver wood chips to your specified location for free. Now, if you choose the free option, you may have to wait a while to get your load of chips. They also offer you the option of donating an amount to cover the cost of the delivery. The recommended amounts start at $20. I offered to pay $20, fully expecting that I would have to wait a few days to see my chips. I was surprised to be contacted by an arborist looking to deliver chips the very next morning! Of course, my husband wasn't too thrilled with it, since that took up a fair amount of the parking behind our house, but I kept reminding him it was essentially FREE (especially when you compare the price of the delivery to what it would have cost me to buy the chip from a regular landscape supply company!)

Now, a couple of caveats: 1) they deliver on their schedule, not yours; and 2) this is not the pristine, well-cleaned, branch- and log-free chip you might get from a landscape company. This has branches, large and small, and can contain a bit of detritus from the site where they did the tree cutting (so you may find a bit of garbage). That being said, it smells fabulous, and the load was generous enough to cover my entire area  at least 4" deep, plus leave about a 1/4 of a pile to spread out around the rest of my yard.

If you're interested in your own load of chip, here's the website address:

https://www.chipdrop.in/login/

So this is what I've done for the past month:




The halfway point. Three weekends to get to this!

Halfway point, the other direction.

Passing the halfway point and on the home stretch!

Again to the west. Sans artichokes, which harbored the slugs and snails!!

The finished product, looking down from the porch.

The finished product, looking down from the porch.

The herb bed and the end of the garden area!

And here are the plants that will go in the tidied beds!

And here . . .

And here!