In an effort to live a more natural life, and to get away from the chemical-laden food that the American public is force fed, we decided to turn our tiny backyard into an edible garden. I have had lofty dreams of turning my property into an urban farm (especially after seeing what LA Farm Hands has done with the yards of friends) for a while now. Watching “Food, Inc.” further solidified the desire to grow my own food (really, if you want to continue eating your food without fear instead of debating whether or not you have the guts to raise and kill your own chickens for meat, do NOT watch that film. Continue living in blissful ignorance and your life will be much easier.).
We made a plan to put in a couple of raised beds to grow some veggies and herbs and then kept putting it off. When we finally mustered up the energy to rip out the grass that has been lamely holding on in the back yard, I marched back there, shovel in hand, thinking “oh yeah, I do Pilates twice a week, this is going to be a piece of cake!”
- Before… the untouched yard with plants ready and waiting for a permanent home.
Not so much cake as old beef jerky. Ripping out grass is hard and I am grateful to have a boyfriend who is used to the task from doing landscaping at golf courses where there is about a thousand times more grass to be dealt with.
- Chuy liked the dirt version of the yard much better, he’s not a fan of grass.
And finito! The yard is grass free!
After we (and by “we” I mean mostly Jason) spent the day battling with the grass that would not give up, it was time to go to Home Depot and get our supplies. People say that men and women use their brains in different ways and there is no clearer a way to see that than in the lumber department at Home Depot trying to calculate how much wood we would need and how to cut the different lengths to suit our needs.
“Well, if we’re doing three layers then we need x amount of total wood and we’ll have to cut it in-to y number of pieces.”
“What? That doesn’t make any sense… just calculate like this [insert overly complicated wood-cutting equation that I can’t even remember because it never made any sense to me to begin with] and we’ll be perfect.”
“Ummm, what? No, that doesn’t make any sense. Take this number and multiply it by three, then divide the length of the wood to fit.”
“Are you crazy?! You’re making it way more difficult than it needs to be.”
“No, you just aren’t calculating it right.”
“No, you aren’t…”
“No, you aren’t!”
The explanations for why the other person was wrong got louder and louder, and more and more complicated. We turned in-to angry cartoon people with steam shooting out of our ears. We retreated to opposite ends of the cedar planks aisle. A Home Depot worker suggested a simple solution. We took it, gratefully.
We got out of Home Depot with sanity (barely) intact and made it back home with enough energy to pass out on the couch with a cold drink.
It took us the next week to build one raised bed. It doesn’t need to take this long; we are just very in-to the idea of baby steps, and rewards for each baby step taken. So we would put together one layer of the raised bed and then call it a day and make a fantastic meal to celebrate. While enjoyable, this method means you will have a sad, bare yard for a lot longer than you need to.
- Building raised beds… one day at a time.
On Saturday I went to an all-day workshop and Jason knocked out the second bed in one fell swoop, even proceeding to the next step of digging around the beds to make room for the gravel that we had decided to put everywhere the beds were not. Very grateful to not have had to reprise my role as nail-hander, I rewarded Jason with beer and pizza and my job was done for the day.
Sunday we made all our plants very happy by planting them in their new homes (with amendment and fertilizer mixed in-to the dirt from the ground). We are looking forward to many tomatoes, habanero peppers, spinach, blueberries, strawberries, kiwis, rosemary, mint, sage, and probably some other things that I am forgetting.
- Happy plants tucked in to their new beds.
The next step for us was to put in the gravel (don’t even ask about the mathematics that went in to this step as well, who knew gardening would require so many calculations?) and a picnic table our neighbor gave us. We are officially ready for a BBQ – more food to celebrate the growing of food!
- Et voila! The finished product!
I have to say, the supplies for building these two beds weren’t cheap. I think the wood alone was about $200. The gravel was $65 for three “scoops,” and we had to make three trips back and forth between Monrovia and Eagle Rock (12 miles each way) because we could only take one scoop at a time in Jason’s truck. I’m rationalizing that we’ll make all our money back just by avoiding the health bills that surely come with eating the pesticides off most grocery store produce.
Of course you don’t have to make it that complicated to start an edible garden – just throw a few tomato plants, some garlic and a few peppers in to any old pot you can find and call it a day. That’s enough for a good amount of salsa, and what else do you need to eat throughout the summer, anyway?
I'm Keely. I live in a tiny duplex in the northeast corner of Los Angeles. I love my town, I also love escaping my little corner of LA. I'm a wanna-be writer that works in real estate. I love architecture & design, home, travel, wine & cheese. And in the middle of summer, I'm really loving air conditioning.
