A Rethink of the 100 Foot Diet Lay-out

After much consideration and thought, I came to the realization that having two raised garden beds in the backyard was too much. The original raised garden bed that I built last season was too far away from the side fence and just took up too much of the room that the kids and dog could use.

So, last Friday afternoon, after classes had ended I had the girls help me move the garden box.

First we put a tarp on the ground and shovelled out the layer of horse manure that I had recently brought in.

Next to come out was the layer of leaves that I had mulched on top of the garden bed last fall.

After these two layers had been carefully removed I shovelled out the soil. It was interesting to see the bits of compost that I had added to the garden last year. Avocado skins and mussel shells certainly do take a long time to break down.

To my girls great delight they found a long lost Dora the Explorer spoon.

Once the soil and all had been removed I stood the garden box on edge and dragged it across the yard, down the side of the house and out to the front yard.

I lined the new garden bed up with the other garden box that I had recently built and filled in the front yard. I felt 36″ between the boxes so that I can still mow between them.

Next I lay a thick layer of cardboard boxes in the bottom of the bed.

On top of the layer of cardboard I began to fill with the manure. To move the manure/soil/leaves from the backyard to the front yard I borrowed my neighbour’s full sized wheelbarrow.

My plan was to put the fresh manure on the bottom of the garden bed. On top of that I put the leaf mulch and then the composted soil.

Of course I had the pleasure of working with the twins while moving the soil. They were more than a little impressed with the worms that we discovered in the soil.

The end result was a much expanded play area in the back yard and two beautiful raised garden beds in the front yard.

As I have said before, the front yard is not a safe place for the kids or the dog to play so why not make it into a garden space? In fact, that is just what I have done!

Next step will be to get some plants started growing!