Ten-Year Plan in Two Weeks

During that first workday pulling weeds at my new Happy Valley Community Garden spot, a neighboring gardener confided to me how depressed she was after reading somewhere that it takes ten years to get a garden looking good. Ten years! Wow, that sounded like a long time to me, yet I knew I could never consider such a statistic depressing. As I looked out at all the weeds I had left to pull, my immediate thought was that if after my first year of working in this garden it still didn't look good, I would at least feel some relief in knowing that I still had nine years left.Now, fast forward a couple of weeks, and my garden is done. It's finished, and it looks great! All that's left is to keep those weeds at bay (that does promise to be a big job!), and to watch those flowers and veggies grow while I enjoy the garden space.

More fence posts have been added and more recycled fish net fencing put in place. Those deer seen grazing on the grasses just outside my garden spot will not get in to munch on my tender little plants. Wood chips were added with a ground barrier below to help keep the weeds out of the walkway. Structures are in place to help support the beans once their sprouts poke through the soil. The compost bin is starting to fill with my compostable household waste and generous amounts of yard waste donations from friends.

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More pics from the final garden makeover.

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So lovely now, it's kind of hard to believe how it looked just a couple of weeks ago. Remember that picture of how it looked "before"?

Take a look at it again - "after"!

It really might have taken me ten years to get it looking good - had I worked on it by myself. But I had help (thanks John!), and now it is finished. A so called ten-year plan completed in two weeks! I like how it turned out. It has a style and flair of its own, and I think it's lovely. Thank you so very, very much for all that help!