Utilizing small space to make the most of it

I added a picture of my house to the sidebar. It was taken last July when everything was green and lush. Amazingly, all that was planted in January and February of last year, from seed and bare root and mostly small plants. Before that the yard was a small expanse of grass. What we invested in was a rototiller rental and a truckload of fertilizer and mulch, that way we could plant small plants and get such amazing growth.

When one has a small space to live it is necessary to use every space as wisely as possible. Having a grass lawn seemed such a waste. It takes regular maintenance and doesn't serve much purpose. If we had kids or dogs we'd have them run around on the grass in the back, not the front. So I started thinking, how can we better use the yard? I also wanted the first project in our new house to be relatively inexpensive so we could learn more cheaply from our inevitable mistakes.

Some of the things we did:

1. Built three raised vegetable beds. Last year we grew a few different tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers. Now we have some lettuce. This year we will have more tomatoes as well as some herbs and other plants to be determined.

2. Planted roses. I love roses. One of the reasons I wanted to own my own home was so I could plant roses and they are part of what keeps me going when I think about how big my mortgage is. We bought bare root plants for cheap, planted them in good soil, and they did mostly very well. However, we don't have so much space that I will tolerate poor performers. We chose plants for looks and scent. The bushes that did not produce as advertised will be pulled and replaced with new bare root plants. I can get a free plant this weekend if I show up to help prune bushes at the local city rose garden.

3. Planted lavender. Walking the path to the house in summer smelled lovely and I had blooming bushes all year until just a couple weeks ago when a cold snap damaged the plants. Eventually I will harvest and use the lavender. It is one of my favorite scents.

4. Planted drought tolerant plants. This year we watered a lot to help the plants get established. Later we will be able to cut our watering way back.

5. Spread lots of mulch. This is good for plants, holds water in the ground and inhibits weeds.

The yard may look like it took a lot of work, and it did to get everything planted and install drip irrigation. Once everything was finished there was very little maintenance. I spent no more than two or three hours a month on average to keep the yard looking good, aside from the vegetables. It is so much easier than grass. An added bonus is the compliments I receive from passers-by.

Mistakes:

We started out buying topsoil and mulch by the bag before we discovered a local place where we could buy it in bulk by the truckload. This year we will buy more mulch that way.

We did not establish a compost bin. It will have to go in the back yard and we are going to tear the back apart this year or next so no compost bin this year, either.

We did not install drip irrigation in the vegetable beds. If we had the vegetable would have been as nearly maintenance free as the rest of the yard.

We bought more plants than we could reasonably plant right away. Towards the end we ran out of enthusiasm for planting and let the remaining plants die of neglect. That was a waste of money.

POSTED BY K-MONEY AT 3:46 PM


4 COMMENTS:

Miss M said...
I love your house, it's very cute. I like the garden in the front too, it's a great use of space and more "green" than a lawn. I confess my front yard is lawn, it's the dog's yard. I live on top of a hill and the back is steep and overgrown. I let the boys down there to play sometimes and they usually come back dirty and bloody from running through the brush. I keep my vegetables on the side of the house and my tomatoes in pots at the top of the hill. A drip system was the best investment I made, I'd lose plants from the summer heat and being too busy to water. I did a simple DIY system with parts from Home Depot, probably less than $100 total. I use a simple timer that runs on a 9V battery, set it and forget it!
JANUARY 10, 2009 8:52 AM

K-Money said...
Yes, we have a drip system for the rest of the yard, just not the vegetables. They went in last and we ran out of enthusiasm. Can you terrace your backyard at some point? A lot of plants thrive that way.
JANUARY 10, 2009 10:46 AM

Money Funk said...
Love the lavendar idea. It's such a nice smell. 

And I totally understand what you mean about the drip irrigation system. Would help 100%! I didn't install it last year. It really does make for more work. My other problem now... My cat... and a couple other cats... decided to make my garden a community litter box. So, I don't know if i will get planting this season as I must start anew. Hmph. Have any remedies for that one? :-)
JANUARY 13, 2009 7:59 AM

K-Money said...
Probably only the top 3-4 inches of soil are "littered". I think they will be OK to use later. I read about a composting toilet for humans and the soil was OK to use after a year, cat litter can't be worse than human. Just scrape it off and put it aside preferably in bin so they won't follow the smell and keep the pile "fresh". As for your vegetable area you could surround it with a couple feet of chicken wire to make it less easy access. Good luck with your garden!