Corey and I are having so much success with our vegetable garden that we decided to plant more. Our garden is on a slope at the very back of our yard, so creating a new plot can take a lot of work.

We learn last season that building a garden can be really expensive if you don’t think things through. The wooden raised bed we built in 07 is really nice, but the total cost was well over $100. When we expanded this spring, we salvaged railroad ties from another part of our yard, along with some scrap rocks, in order to build a 4′x10′ plot. The only thing that we needed to buy for that area was some Peat and Omagro.

But we pretty much exhausted our free materials on that job, so when a friend asked me to help him remove a retaining wall last weekend I jumped at the opportunity. After several hours of pulling stone and pushing a wheel barrel, I had a solid collection of broken concrete and wall rock to work with.

We drew up a rough plan and started in on Saturday. We ended up building a convenient series of steps with a small landing. Then we added a really small 4′x1′ bed for peppers and a 4′x8′ bed for more cucumbers and beans. We also took advantage of some available flat space to put some pots full of dill. My goal will be to make my own refrigerator pickles.

It is getting pretty late in the year, who knows how successful the plot will be. We are starting everything from seed, so there isn’t too much of an expense for the experiment.

We have a lot to learn, but we are resolved to become productive yard farmers. After our trip to City Sprouts last week, we saw how lush an urban garden can be. Our goal is to get better and more informed each year. Eventually we hope to supply ourselves with a nice crop of homegrown goodness all season.