We have 3 distinct sections in our small backyard garden. (more to come in the future) For now we have our Main Garden right off the back patio. It currently consists of 184 square feet of raised bed growing space, plus several grow bags and containers throughout.
Our South Side Garden was the second addition to our growing space. It started with just a 24 sq ft bed against the house for my strawberries. Then my vision grew from there, as I realized just how much space I had over there. (It’s the side of the yard we NEVER used before, because it was so separated from the rest of the backyard.) This added an additional 172 sq ft of raised bed space.
Of course, with 2 big dogs constantly getting in to everything, our first challenge was trying to keep them out of the garden area. It took several configurations to finally come up with what we have now, which makes everyone happy! Well, almost. That’s where the cut-flower garden comes in.
Last November as I started perusing seed catalogs and planning my next spring garden, I was so inspired by all the beautiful cut-flowers. I decided I had to find a way to incorporate a space for cut-flowers. That’s when we decided to start developing Sunflower Hill. It’s the only part of the garden that is not currently fenced to keep the dogs out. And that’s only because of our 2 tier landscape. It makes it very difficult to figure out a way to incorporate a fence to keep them off that section of the hill, as you can see in the images below.
I do have some ideas for next year, but it’s a major work in progress. I don’t plan to start that until it starts cooling down this fall. I’m contemplating some birdie’s raised beds to create a barrier to make access to that section a little more difficult. It won’t keep them out completely, but it will limit them so that the only way in is through the gravel walkway. They don’t care for walking on the gravel, if they can help it. So I’m hoping this will help deter them!
By the way, those images aren’t the greatest because the dogs have trampled so many of my beautiful flowers. (they like to bark at the dogs next door. A LOT.) So here are some pretty pictures from when the garden was vibrant with blooms.
Here are a couple of videos we’ve made, while documenting this garden journey. The crazy part is we need to do a new update because many things have already changed!
Below are some photos from the beginning of the south side transformation. I already plan to re-configure my beds this fall because those 4-foot wide beds are just too wide for me. It’s really difficult to reach the middle.
Below you can see a quick little video showing the full transformation of South Side.
And finally, we put together a newer video to document how much of the hill portion of the backyard has changed throughout the past year. We still have a lot more planned for this space so you can expect a more updated version by next year!
UPDATE: This post was written in 2021. We have made SO many changes since that time. We finally figured out how to fence off the hill so we could create an ACTUAL Terrace Garden.
Those landscape timbers for sunflower hill did absolutely NOTHING to hold the soil in. We have had an enormous amount of rain over the past decade. The soil erosion was terrible and kept my main garden looking very messy as all the soil continued to wash down in to my gravel walkway.
You can check out the steps we took in 2022 to create the terrace garden and expand the fenced area. Wait until you see how the garden looks in 2023! So many changes have happened since 2021.
Tell us below what you think. Do you have any garden aspirations? We hope you’ll share your thoughts below.
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