My garden odyssey: Do it yourself or do without

EPISODE V

Like most homeowners — especially first home owners — we did not have a lot of cash left after buying our house to put toward improvements like the garden. Our first order of business was to build up our reserves and save toward a new roof. That meant we needed to figure out how to create a garden on the cheap without it looking cheap. We gave ourselves five years to do the job.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the first things we decided was that we would design the garden ourselves. We did that, in part, because it seemed silly to hire someone for what we thought would be a small project — but obviously it was also a money-saving decision as well.

But when it came to hardscaping materials, we had to be more creative. Luckily the previous homeowners agreed to include a stockpile of old bricks in the deal. That meant we could do a brick patio and walkways without having to purchase anything. 

And if we did all the work ourselves that would save even more money; even if it meant that projects took more time because we had to fit them in on weekends and vacations. And, frankly, a number of jobs fell to my husband because they were more suited to his mechanical or physical skills.

But there were plenty of jobs I could handle. The picture above shows the first step in building our patio. Using hoses to help us determine the size, we created a design of two interlocking circles. We then proceeded to take up the sod using a sharp flat shovel. We built a wood frame with screening attached which I used to separated dirt from the sod clumps. I would knock off as much dirt as possible and then put the remains on the compost pile. In this shot, you can see the screening frame, piles of sod and the outside entrance to our basement. The bare spot in the upper left corner is the future site of our raised rock garden.

We dug a path from the patio to the end of the garden where we would put our English bench. The path defined two good-size beds across from each other. These photos also show the limestone obelisk that Mark designed and built using free recycled materials. A hollyhock is planted at the base of the sculpture. 

The rock garden begins to take shape with stepping stones leading through it to the patio. We used more of the recycled limestone to edge all the walkways. It would now be possible to walk dryshod from the driveway to the outside cellar door. When we excavated for the path connecting the patio area to the driveway, we discovered an ash pit left by an earlier occupant. We also found an old glass patent medicine bottle. Notice the first shrubs are in pots waiting to be planted. 

In a small garden there's no place to store materials out of sight when you're working on a project. So all the bricks that had been jumbled up behind the garage came out to be cleaned off and separated into piles of red brick and cement bricks. We decided we'd use the grayish cement bricks as an edging for the patio to complement the limestone edging on the paths. There are also piles of soil to use for the rock garden and to backfill around the patio as well as sand to be used as bedding for the bricks.

Here I am laying the bricks in a herringbone pattern on a base of sand. It looked great and was not particularly difficult to do — except for the need to trim the bricks that touched the outside edge of the circles. After everything was in place, sand was swept into the spaces between the bricks and tamped down. The sand allowed plants to self-seed as well as to be easily pulled out.

The view from the kitchen window shows the "running bond" pattern of the bricks in the pathways. These bricks were not ideal for outdoor use, being a bit soft and subject to spawl in the winter. We thought they might have to be replaced down the road. Or perhaps, as they crumbled our patio would turn from brick to gravel. But they were perfect for using while we learned — and the price was right. 

We've finished the brickwork as you can see in this view and also had a professional stone cutter make a limestone pyramid to cap the obelisk. Now I can finally begin planting! We economized by bringing plants from our apartment garden as well as buying small plants and letting them grow on in the holding beds while we worked on the hardscaping. We also were fortunate to have very generous gardening friends who shared plants with us.

You may have noticed that there are no rocks in the rock garden in this view. That's because we didn't like the look of the first rocks we set and so we pulled them out and started again until we got it right.

I invite you to go on a weekly garden odyssey with me each Wednesday. We'll look at how and what I've learned about gardening from dirt to design to practical techniques that perhaps will be useful to you. And, of course, there will be lots of pictures. You can view Episodes I — IV by clicking on My Garden Odyssey in the categories column.

Comments

[joco]

Hiya Linda,

Time to take a break from all this slave labour.

What's an English bench? Am I going to be sorry I asked ?

Best wishes for the season.

Your Christmas Card is here.

[Jim/ArtofGardening.org]

Great post. Again. I really like following how this garden happened. The shape of your yard is so like very many other city yards, And what you did with it is amazing!

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Of course, joco, if we see it something (like a nice bench) in an English garden then we immediately call it an English bench and adapt the idea to our garden!

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Jim - I consider that high praise coming from you, since I have seen many great images from your own small city garden. Thanks.