Comment on NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE
The_Sasswagon@beehaw.org 3 days agoMy suggestion, since I’ve done something similar. (Depending on what is there now) I’d recommend killing the weeds by laying down layers of cardboard and mulch on top (after cutting them down). Some plants are too pernicious for that and require digging up taproots or targeted herbicide, but the majority of the stuff under it will die and be nutrients for what you plan on planting there. As the cardboard, mulch, and old plants rot, you’ll have exceptional soil for pretty nearly free (depending on the cost of the mulch and your time). As a neat bonus you’ll get all kinds of interesting fungus to look at too.
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Thank you kind stranger. I will look into it.
The only heartbreaking part is that before we moved in there were perennial flowers planted along the edge of the garden, I guess it was a flower garden for the previous owners, and I’m not sure I can save them before I go scorched earth on the rest of the area.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 2 days ago
I’m in a similar boat. When I moved in there were lovely flowers that kept popping up every time the last ones finished blooming throughout the entire season. Then I went back to college and next thing I knew some sort of fast growing something or other has completely taken over all of the flower beds. It’s probably killed everything that isn’t hosta already. My new next door neighbors are clearly shut ins like me and their flower beds have gotten overrun as well
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Yep. Ever since I saw the garden in the back yard, which occupies about half of the back yard, I wanted to make a vegetable garden with raised beds, eventually enclosing it like a greenhouse in the long term.
I’ve been too busy and my money has been to scarce trying to pay enough to live here that I haven’t made any progress on achieving that goal. It really doesn’t help that lumber prices went though the roof around the time we moved in, so I can’t even really afford to buy the wood I would need to make the raised beds. And I don’t want like 6" or whatever raised beds. I’m thinking more like 3 ft. I don’t want to have to crawl on the ground or even really bend over to plant/tend/harvest whatever I plant. So it’s not going to be a small amount of wood that I’ll need.
Then I need to figure out how to find the time to attend to it, when I should plant/fertilize/harvest, how often I should tend to the plants etc… There’s a lot I don’t know about what it takes to maintain a veggie garden. I’ll get there eventually, or I’ll die trying.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 2 days ago
I’ll give you the same advise I recently took to heart and started following for my hobbies: don’t wait until you can make it perfect. Start working on the garden you can do right now…er next spring?
If you start small now, you can start enjoying it now, then you can build up your experience, skills and tools, and once you have the time and money for the epic garden you want, you’ll also have the skills to absolutely make full use of it!
I’m doing the same thing with model railroading. I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to start on my first model railroad as an adult. A few weeks ago I finally said “fuck it” and bought a door at the hardware store and some mounting hardware. I’ll have a car I can fit a 4x8 sheet of insulation foam into in a couple of weeks so then I can get rolling and start building a nice little starter layout and enjoy that right now. Then later on I can build something bigger and better (plus have more skills and experience under my belt to do it better!)