Parking Strip "Farm"

Our parking strip redo project is just about done.  While we have grown veggies successfully in the parking strip for several years in raised sod beds, we got really tired of maintaining the grass around the crops.  So, over several weeks we transformed the space to smother the grass and enlarge the raised beds.

Old Sod Beds

Here's a description of the process:

1. Drink Tea.
2. Design- measure parking strip, sketch to scale raised bed locations and dimensions.  Argue Discuss with spouse how much space is allocated to vegetables vs. flowers.
3. Calculate- determine how much soil and wood chips to order.
4. Drink Coffee.
5.  Remove old sod bed borders- Terry used a pick axe to break the sod down and then I spread the sod out over existing grassy areas.  We also scraped the sod off along the sidewalk about 2 inches below the elevation of the concrete.  
6. Layout Design- mystify neighbors with dozens of blue and orange flags.  We marked the corners of the new raised beds with flags.
7. Order soil- I debated whether to get 3-way mushroom Topsoil from H&B or Tacoma's Tagro Potting Soil.  I ended up ordering 13 yards of Tagro Potting Soil because the delivery fee was cheaper and to support the Tagro program.  It will break down faster than topsoil and dry out a little quicker, but it's a reliable product and usually weed free.  In addition to the new soil, we also had the soil that was in the old raised beds to use.
8. Drink Coffee.
9. Collect cardboard for sheet mulching- we dumpster dived in cardboard recycling bins at the City Dump, as well as, behind local strip malls.  Neighbors also donated their boxes. In total we stuffed my little truck's bed (which has a canopy) about 5 times.
10. Sheet mulch over grass- to smother the grass we laid down overlapping double layers of cardboard.  This got us the most questions from passersby.  When we explained what the cardboard was for- lets just say most people could not see our vision.  Several people even asked how we were going to remove the cardboard later.  Smile.
11. Move giant soil pile- as we laid sections of cardboard down, we shoveled and wheelbarrowed the soil to the locations of the new raised beds (between those handy flags).  We made the soil about twelve inches deep.  We raked the lumps out and shaped the sloped sides.  Once the soil was spread, we watered it down a little to help it settle.   And since we had some onion sets, seed potatoes and dahlia tubers to plant we did so.  Why wait till the whole project is done.
12. Order free wood chips- a thick layer of wood chips is a key part of successful sheet mulching.  They hold the cardboard down and help smother the grass.  We really needed chips right away to cover the exposed cardboard, but had to wait until the soil pile was gone.  So, the day after the soil was moved, I made a call to a local tree service that did work for us a few years ago- the number was disconnected.  I called another local arborist who donated chips to the community garden last year- they wouldn't have any chips any time soon.  I called Tacoma Power and left a message on their wood chip request line- which said that I would receive a call within 10 days.  I scanned the phonebook, but didn't want to call companies that weren't located in Tacoma.  The next day, I just happened to drive past a tree service working in the neighborhood.  I stopped and asked if I could have the chips.  They said yes and in a couple hours they dropped off about 7 yards of chips for us to spread.  The chips were perfect too.  Lots of chunky cedar wood chips, not too many leaves and needles.
13. Drink Coffee.
14. Spread wood chips- we covered the rest of the cardboard with about a foot of wood chips.  We raked them out as best we could.  The chips create pathways between the beds.  Also, since the raised beds don't have typical wooden sides to help retain the soil and moisture, the chips will help.  We spread out the big pile and realized we didn't have enough chips.  Luckily, Tacoma Power called yesterday and dropped a small load that should take us to completion.  This load wasn't as nice as our first pile.  This load had a lot a fines- doug fir needles and small bits of actual wood.  So, with free chips, you never know what you're going to get.

The process wasn't as clean and tidy as the 14 steps might make it sound, but it worked.  We just have to drink some more coffee, collect another load of cardboard to finish the outer edge near the road and spread the new pile of chips.  Meanwhile, we've got most of the new beds planted.  Terry planted his early corn, beets, onions and potatoes.  I planted the flower beds out with some existing daylilies, dahlias, and irises I had elsewhere.  I'm also trying out a bunch of annual flower seeds- snapdragons, calendula, godetia, larkspur, cosmos, sweet peas and tithonia.  I'm excited to see how they do.  

For maintenance, we'll just have to stay on top of weeding out any grass that tries to poke up through or between the sheet mulch.  We can always add more cardboard/chips in trouble spots.  Also, there is bound to be some weed seed in the soil, so we'll have to keep the beds weeded so the darn things don't get established.  Terry will need to weed whack the tiny remaining strip of grass along the road.  Other than that, it's just watering and enjoying our crops and flowers.

New Raised Beds before Wood Chips

After Wood Chips

Onions Bed

Second pile of free chips- courtesy of Tacoma Power

Almost done- just need to finish the sloped edge by the road

Parking Strip Redo

So if you've been by our house lately, you might be wondering WTF is up with our parking strip garden.  Well... apparently we can't leave well enough alone.  The raised beds edged with repurposed sod served us well for the past three years, but we are tired of trimming the grass both on the bed edges and between the beds.  Also, because the sod had rhizomatous grasses and weeds in it, the good garden soil was slowly being invaded creating more weeding work for us.  So, Terry insisted that we rid ourselves of the sod.  The plan is to remove the sod bed edges, spread the sod out, sheet mulch over the sod with cardboard, enlarge the beds with more soil, and mulch everything else with wood chips.

We started off by measuring the parking strip and sketching out the new bed configuration.  Then, we edged the sidewalk because the grass had grown over it.  Next, we measured and marked out the new beds corners with pin flags.  Then we started to pick away the current sod bed edges.  This is perhaps the most labor intensive part of the project.  It's pretty clear that things are going to look horrible until we complete this project.  We need to collect a ton of cardboard, order 12 yards of soil, and find an arborist to drop a load of wood chips.  Also we need to do all this soon, we can getting planting.

I'd like to note that, beds edged with sod isn't necessarily a bad way to go, if you only have a small area to manage.  I had suggested that we cover the sod beds with black plastic during Winter to weaken the grass and warm the soils before each growing season.  However, Terry had already made up his mind that the sod had to go.  Plus, he wanted more planting space.  So that explains the mess and the pin flags...

If you are interested in growing a garden in your parking strip, the city of Tacoma has some guidelines.  You can find information on this at Gardensphere in Proctor.

Our Kitchen Garden- An Early Spring Tour

Our kitchen garden is located on the south side of our house.  Last year, we covered the lawn with raised beds and gravel paths.  We designed an area for sitting in the middle of the garden.  Our property slopes down to a low retaining wall, so we built two terraced beds into the slope.  We also planted fruit trees and strawberries on the slope.  

The view looking East.

Cabbage Patch

Young Cabbages are protected from hungry birds in chicken wire domes.

Baby Beets

We have a large parking strip and wanted to utilize it for vegetables.  We didn't want to buy lumber for beds, so we cut the sod into squares to stack for the walls.  

Onions- Yellow, Red, and Walla Walla

Kale- leftover from Fall

Potatoes are coming up- we planted Red, Yukon Gold, Blue, and Russets

Peach Blossom

On the north side of our house we planted Raspberries to complement the existing Blackberries.

Blueberry Blossoms

Our garden as grown substantially over the past four years.  We started small with just two raised beds that gave us about 75 square feet of vegetable garden.  It was a good start, but too small to grow everything we wanted to try.  

Last Spring we did the huge expansion getting rid of most of the lawn and taking over the parking strip.  Now we have about 600 square feet to grow vegetables in.  In addition to our raised beds we planted 5 fruit trees and strawberries into the landscape.  We have another 60 square feet for blackberries, blueberries and raspberries.  Also, tucked along our retaining wall are herbs like thyme and rosemary and just recently I planted two grape vines and a dwarf kiwi vine.  

That's the quick and dirty tour.

  

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