There are no pictures of garden #2. There was nothing worth taking pictures of. As much as garden #1 was successful in every way, this one was an abject failure. And the thing I blame most - ignorance.
With the twins growing rapidly, the 2 bedroom apartment was becoming VERY small for us. We knew we had to move - but finding a new place was problematic. We settled for a very affordable 3 bedroom house - and affordable was the only real benefit it had. It had been a bit of a DIY nightmare in a past life - with a crazy layout (an underground kitchen and a 5 1/2 foot clearance doorway to a downstairs toilet - not good when you're 6ft 4 - at least once I knocked myself out going through that door - and gave myself a concussion on at least 2 occasions) - it had a backyard, of sorts. It was maintained by the shoddiest of lawn companies, who's leafblowing into the surrounding vinage and scalping of the lawn had resulted in soil erosion on a patchy lawn and the over a third of the yard reclaimed by nature. not an exaggeration - there were wisteria and kudzu vines I found that I mistook for trees - and a property fence no one had seen for 10 years.
When I mentioned a garden, the landlord laughed and said I could do what I wanted.
The only water spigot was tucked away at the top of a hill, which had a single nice flat area that I had to free from vines and overgrowth. I found under a blanket of leaves a rich black soil..... for 1 inch.... then sand.
Not 'sandy soil' - sand.
Still the area looked ok in the Autumn sun, and so I bought tools and dug, turned, nailed, cut and screwed. All through the winter I toiled - building 4 raised beds 8ft by 4ft - I double dug the sand and dirt - hauled in dirt and bark from my father-in-law's farm where I'd been helping out. A 55 gallon drum, with the help of a drill and some applied physics (to all who said I wasted my time with that in Uni - this Bud's for you!) became a frighteningly efficient burn barrel able to reduce a tree to ash in under an hour - vines would literally disintegrate in seconds as it the whole drum glowed an evil red.
Then spring! an explosion of green everywhere! except my beds - as they were totally shaded as every tree sprung new life and vines clawed back to reclaim the sky. The topsoil and bark turned nearly to cement on the first rain, and the twisted and stunted plants that clawed from it either died or bolted to seed after failing to produce anything. Judicious use of a quarter bag of farm grade fertilizer ensured that what was left was thoroughly burned to death.
To fix the soil I educated myself on composting - this was not only for the garden, but also for the household. Twins go through a LOT of diapers, which in turn eat a LOT of bin space, and so you end up with a backlog of paper goods. Those leaves that were blown into the vines (and creating wonderful soil for them to thrive while the lawn turned to dust) were raked out and put to use. By summer I had the start of some good soil - but nowhere near enough.
I busted out the containers down by the house and tried to rebuild the first garden that worked - but that soil that I saved was now spent (you have to replenish nutrients... who'da thunk it?) - some quick math showed two great revelations: Farm fertilizer was used on farms for a reason - and the cost of miracle grow and other plant foods/soils are actually priced to make gardening more expensive than buying the food. And thus I learned my first word in the hippy vernacular: unsustainable.
Revisiting the compost heap I discovered it wasn't heat that was working so rapidly on my pile (it was in the shade - like everything else in vine heaven) - but that hundreds of worms had taken up residence under it. So back to the internet for info on vermicomposting (worm farms). This time I'd fork out a little money (my garden pocket money by this time was nearly expended, and I had NOTHING to show for it) and get a bit of proper - if cheap - kit. A low end 'tower' and 500 red wrigglers.
Back to Autumn with a plan - I'd rake up and beat the yardies to the leaves, compost all winter, get the worm farm into full swing, set up rainwater collection (this was the first stage of an aquaponic experiment that I didn't get a chance to complete), setup a small indoor growing station under lights, and hit spring with a vengance.
I'd like to say the next spring was a wonderful success - but that would be a lie. It was better, and my long winter of studying paid off. 2 out of 4 beds were functional and started growing tomatoes and peppers, 2 beds still needed filling. A potato tower was doing ok and starting to flower by the end of spring - and the container garden and rainwater (with worm farm fertilizer and castings) was starting to kick out greens again... and then we found 'The House'.
A 120yr old Victorian in need of much love. 3600 square feet with a sunny back yard and a park across the road. Ours to do with whatever we liked, and priced within our means.
And so failcakes garden #2, with many lessons learned was left behind, and again I was back to square one - Spring, Summer and the start of Autumn would pass before I had time and spare pocket money to start on another.... and that brings us to now.
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