Years ago (we’ve lived in our house since December of 2001 and began a garden the following spring) we started a garden on a barren plot of land next to an old barn on our property. Over the years we’ve gradually made it more and more like the garden of our dreams. Over the years we have salvaged a falling down fence from another area of our property and reused it around our garden, put in two compost bins, moved our potting bench down to the garden, built a garden tool shed, raised many of our garden beds, expanded our planting areas, and brought in found objects to make it more like a rustic garden sanctuary. We still have a list of projectst to complete (including several benches made from salvaged materials, gutters on the barn leading into a rain barrel for watering, some vertical gardening ideas we have for the side of the barn, some other pathways to create inside the garden, a pathway leading to the garden with blackberry and blueberry patches, and some overall finishing touches. I say all this to basically say- it’s not there yet- but it’s on its way!
This summer we added rock borders and colorful stepping stone paths between the beds. Our steps:
We gathered up rocks. We did this in the most environmentally friendly way we could. We found a rock slide where many of the rocks had landed in and near the road and would need to be removed anyway and we took a lot from there. We got some from local creeks, but were careful not to take too many from any one area and to not take them from spots where they were clearly providing an important part of an animal’s habitat. We also found some on our property once we started really looking closely. We used these rocks to border our new planting areas we were adding this year. We also used them to border off our new pathways between the rows of raised garden beds. My goal for this garden is for it to really show that it was developed over time- I don’t want it to look over planned or “put together”. I want it to be rustic and unique, yet simple and most imporantly easy to care for.
We then bought a few concrete stepping stones from Lowe’s (they were very cheap) and we laid them out in the paths where they would be permanently. Next my daughter and I painted them all different colors. I let her choose the colors. If the paint wears away or begins to chip off some or gets dirty over time then that will get me to the weathered look I really want.
Next we laid wet newspaper in our new pathways and wet it down. This will help keep weeds at bay and will keep our pea gravel layer (that is next) from settling in to the ground too far initially. We priced pea gravel and found the cheapest we could and put a layer (couple of inches thick) on top of the newspaper. We spread it out evenly.
In one small area in the middle of our garden we filled the area between our stones with fresh dirt (from our compost bin) and planted some creeping thyme. Over time the thyme will creap in and fill up this area.
Now we’re brainstorming and planning on what we will do to the garden this spring/summer!
