Selecting an Area:

When selecting an area to convert into a garden, keep in mind what you’re wanting to plant and look for areas that will well suit that plant. For example does the plant prefer full sun, part sun, or shade? Does the plant need well-draining soil? Also, be practical and realize how much time you have to give to your garden. Remember, it’s always easier to start small and expand later. You want a space that you can manage and keep up on. I think nothing is more discouraging than seeing a garden that’s gotten away from you and weeds have taken over!!

We built our location from scratch. The goal was to create a ‘secret garden room’. We already had two 'walls' with the Tearoom on the North/East side and the new Bed and Breakfast just perpendicular to the Tearoom.  So we needed to just create two more walls.

Bed and Breakfast Side Wall

 Because our ground sloped downwards, we needed to build it up. We did this with wooded pillars. We built it up about a foot. Filled the area with dirt.  Because of the cattle that we have on our farm, we have piles of composted dirt that we used. It’s been composting for a few years, so the soil is rich and perfect for plants! I’ll be going into more detail on Composted Dirt in a later post.

We constructed the groundwork last fall and let it sit there all winter. It was good for the soil to settle. The only planting we did was plant our Arborvitae trees. If you decide to do your groundwork in the fall, I’d recommend putting a tarp over your soil. Unfortunately, we didn’t do this and the wind blew our dirt everywhere all winter long!!

Lattice Corner Wall

We know that it will take a little while for the Arborvitae trees to grow thick into a wall-like hedge so, this Spring we added a lattice fence behind them. This creates the illusion of a wall and also provides wind protection to the Arborvitaes.