DIY Side Garden: 5 Common Mistakes

June 8, 2010

Do you have dreams of a small suburban garden in some small corner of your neatly manicured lawn? Dreams of coming home from work and picking fresh veggies to saute up for dinner? I, too, had a dream. It began in March with the first hint of spring. The warm weather went straight to my brain and I came down with a severe case of spring fever.  Fever of the kind that renders you completely stupid. It was during this time that I began work on my side garden, in a portion of my yard that is on a steep slope, covered by shade overhead and carpeted with thick, red clay underfoot. If I had a kick-wheel and a kiln, I could make my own cookware from the clay that passes for dirt in my yard. But, somehow, a vegetable garden in this area seemed completely logical and sane. And so, it began.

Mistake #1.
Formulate a plan, but don’t ask advice from anyone you know.

This seems like a no-brainer. But, somehow, I always think I have all the answers. If I had taken some time to ask for opinions from a few people I would have had a much more solid plan in the beginning. As it was, I put my plan on paper and proceeded to look for help with the physical labor for my project. The result: very confused laborers, muddled pricing and in the end, a decision to do the work myself. But, still, I was able to get my first goal accomplished: a clothesline. A pretty simple endeavor, but for someone with no building skills, even this little project had to be farmed out. I enlisted the services of “Andy on Call“, a local, franchised group that specializes in small construction jobs. I have to say this turned out well. They were attentive and quickly set up my clothesline just the way I imagined it would be. Ah, now, if only I could wade through all this gravel to get to it!

Mistake #2.
While you’re not asking any advice, go ahead and plan your garden based on where the sun hits your yard IN THE WINTER.
From January to March I would intermittently stride around the yard, purposely tracking how the sun hit the yard at different times of day. After all, those veggies would need lots of good sunshine to grow. I even kept a sun diary for a short time. But, I was positive that I could remember from the summer before how that sunshine lay. Umm. NO. The location of those raised beds I was planning has changed dramatically, along with the size of the beds. I have even decided to eliminate some of the beds because the shade has become so dense.

Mistake #3.
Plan your project for the busiest month of the spring, and proceed to plan to do it all yourself.
Yep. After getting pricing from a couple of different sources, I decided that I could do it all myself and save a boatload of money. Never mind that planting season was only 4-5 weeks away and I had two kids graduating from college and high school, relatives coming to visit and projects galore going on at my day job. I figured I’d work on it in the afternoons after I got home. WHAT was I thinking? I purchased the rock and sand and gravel to get started, and there it all came to a screeching halt. I’m sure to this day my neighbors curse my name when they look out their windows at my beautiful bags of gravel and stacks of wood and rock. I told myself that I wouldn’t mind if the project took a little longer than I had projected. Again… NO.

Mistake #4.
Assume you are strong enough to lift a 1000 pounds and leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Although I am in my 50′s, I couldn’t see any reason that I couldn’t lift a ton of slate. I figured it would just mean less visits to the gym. Also, I ‘ve actually gotten to lift a lot of that same slate several times, since the plan that I started with has become beautifully fluid and changed daily, depending on my outlook for the day. (Remember the sun diary?) My only excuse is that I must have still been delusional from all that spring fever.

Mistake #5.
Go ahead and purchase your plants, because it will motivate you to get this project finished!
I bought a few herbs and stuck them in the ground, just as a little salve to ease my hurt at not having my garden ready to plant. Then, I was at the nursery and I came to the realization that all of the vegetable plants were going to be SOLD by the time I was finally ready to plant. So, I went ahead and bought a couple of tomato plants and a couple of squash plants, figuring surely I’d get enough ground prepared to put at least this paltry offering in the ground. Well, they are in the ground. But, not where I had anticipated, plus… they were near death by the time I finally dug the grave, oops, I mean garden area. We’ll see if they survive.

So, this is where I stand now. One really nice clothesline. A partially implemented garden plan. A couple of sickly plants in the ground or in pots. A lot of work left to do. It’s OK, though. I’m patient. Now, I’m just looking at this as prep for next year’s garden. And, I’ll be supporting local farmers ALOT at the market this summer. So, it can’t be all bad. I’ve learned a lot and am determined to keep going. As long as there’s Cutters for the skeeters and I can work after the temperature drops to 90 degrees in the afternoons, there’s still hope. Be sure to stay tuned for posted updates.

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