Continuing the Grow Beds

Hey y’all!

I didn’t do everything I planned this weekend, because life happened, but I did finish boxing in one of my grow beds.

Here are the rabbits helping to knock out some of the grass.

They didn’t actually seem to do a whole lot at the time, but they really enjoyed it.

There will eventually be two large grow beds where I’ll be putting annual plants, and I’ll be building a small bed for asparagus and possibly strawberries.

Here is the one grow bed I finished boxing in today.

Obviously, I haven’t filled it in, yet… at least not all the way. I put all the manure I had at the time in the bed, but there are a lot of leaves around and a lot of compost, and the rabbits are making more manure everyday.

Plus, I can always get more soil from the woods and put in the beds. It’s just so hot during the day. I’m seriously contemplating sleeping mostly during the day and working in the cooler evenings and the early, early mornings. I’m thinking we’ll be getting more outside stuff done during the fall and winter.

For those that have forgotten (and for inspiration for me), below is the picture of what I plan to do with the front yard.

I’m excited for this because it’s so different from what we have now. This is the current yard:

Some progress has been made, and we’re nearly 1/3 of the way there!

I need opinions, though. You see where I placed the two circles with the question marks? I had planned for these to be apple trees, and I’m still leaning towards that, but I’m wondering if something else would be better. If anyone has ideas, please let me know.

My intentions are to grow a type of food forest. One challenge is, this is a front yard in town, so I don’t want to pack it full of plants. I want it to remain attractive. Also, my yard is pretty shady. It’s north-east facing, and my neighbors have big trees that shade my yard.

I would love to plant corn and sugar cane, but I don’t have the space or the light for that. I’ve ended up planting mostly potatoes and greens. I wonder if I should do another small grow bed for sugar cane? I do have the space in front of where those trees will be. What do y’all think? Sugar cane’s pretty tall. It would add even more shade to some of my plants. Or should I covertly plant some cane in the empty lot down the road? There’s plenty of light. I really like the idea of growing my own source of sweetener. Sugar beets don’t grow as well as sugar cane in Texas, but sugar cane needs more light.

I don’t know. Something to contemplate.

I want to grow everything, but I just don’t have the space. I have to be pretty choosey about what I plant. That said, if there’s something you think I absolutely need to try, please let me know.

I love advice. I did grow up on a farm, but I’m still only 24 – barely an adult. I’m still learning everyday.