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Oklahoma Gardening

The bad news is I am tearing out my garden!

8 years ago

The good news is: We just bought our first home!! I am so excited i could just pop! I cant wait to start planning the lay out for my future garden. Our new home is on 1.4 acres so i will have quite a bit of room to play with. Incredible! The house is perfect for us and it all just seems so surreal. I am so thankful for this new chapter, but i walked through my current garden tonight and felt a little sad thinking about having to tear it all out, especially mid-season! So... im posting pictures of my beautiful "first" garden (although its my second year technically). We will be closing on the new house August 11th, and will need to have our current rental property including my garden cleaned out by Sept 1st. There will be no fall garden for me this year, but hopefully i will get to harvest quite a bit more before i start yanking out plants/ my raised beds! The harvest so far is going pretty well. The first 2 picts are 3 days worth of harvest. 3rd is just from today!

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Comments (9)

sammy zone 7 Tulsa
8 years ago
Your garden is so pristine. Are you sure you cannot pack it up, and move it with you? That shouldn't be too much trouble, should it?

Those raised beds are so nice. In time we need to look into doing something like this. It is really great.

Sammy
chickencoupe
8 years ago
I'm really sorry you're losing your hard work behind and forced to tear up the rest. But I'm very happy for you and your new house and the bigger space. Yay!!
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Fabulous house! I have a corner bed kinda like you are talking about. It is anchored with a small tree (crepe myrtle which you can't see much of in the photo)and two smaller crepes that are shrub sized. Iris, daylilies, and daisies make up the rest along with daffodils and tulips. We put in some liriope grass to anchor the edges. We dump mulch in there a couple of times a year...otherwise grass seed tries to take over. Now that the bed has been there nearly six years, I really enjoy it. It provides a pretty corner and a nice view from the front porch. From time to time, I put a few leftover annuals there. It definitely is the 'step-child' of my garden area. With the great porch you have, I'd concentrate on beds there for a while in order to make it even more enjoyable. Fill the street bed with easy care perennials and mulch and water occasionally. I think you'll be glad you left it in a few years when it grows up. Here is a link that might be useful: Creative Soul
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I have to tear out my berries :(
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Yeah, that's the trouble with the cane berries. I can mess with all kinds of treatments, but with the few shrubs I have and the close proximity they are to my patio living area, it's the "unsightly" factor that is making me want to rip them out. That's why I'm torn, their appearance vs. the yummy berries they do provide. What I should really do is try and find a community garden plot somewhere for my more unsightly loves. That's the real challenge for me with edible landscaping, not the edible part, the aesthetics. I mean a well maintained vegetable garden is a "pretty" thing to my way of thinking, but in the right setting. Somehow for my courtyard, it's a different animal. Yes, I am asking a lot, but that's the fun of it, it's a real learning experience. The raspberries looked great until they became riddled with problems. I'm trying chemical and pruning schemes but it's an uphill road, like you mention Carol. Funny you should mention "wolfberries." I was just thinking about them today. They grow in huge lush hedges around here in the wild. I pass by some along the road on my way to work every morning. They are on a bank next to the road, competing with every kind of aggressive neighbor imaginable. And I was actually thinking about currants too. There is a clove scented currant bush. This has given me some more options to think about, so I won't feel quite so sad about ripping out my raspberries. Like I said, I'm just whining because I look at them every day and fuss with them to no avail, and this voice in the back of my head says, "Chuck them, they are a mess" and then this other voice says, "No, no, I like those raspberries, yum!" Which will win out, my stomache or my eyes? :) The whole yard is due for a major overhaul this fall. I'm tearing out one wild rose that was a case of "good plant, wrong place" since it is sending out runners into my neighbors yard, plus it wasn't that pretty. I gave most of it away to the arboretum where I used to work, but have to root out the last of it. That's why I'm thinking that spot I pictured above might be good for another rose. At least the runners can't get to my neighbors garden from there. Luckily they are patient with me, since they like to garden and have their own rose and grape battles!! There is another rugosa, called "Snow Pavement" which is supposed to be a bit smaller, but I haven't seen that one in years. I know those landscape roses would be perfect for my yard, but they aren't as fragrant and don't have the large hips. I gotta have a rose though, due to my last name--Rosenberg, which is where I get the "pinkmountain" from. Decisions, decisions. Lots of great options here! I may have to mail order though. As a side note, I have just been hired to teach a horticulture class at Temple Ambler!!! I am sooooo excited. What a geat place that is, they have an absolutely gorgeous arboretum. I'll bet I can find someone down there who would know where to get some of the less run of the mill plants. I'm in seventh heavan, surrounded by plant weenies!!!
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2ajsmama
8 years ago
Your garden is very well-kept and neat, can you take the containers and maybe the T posts but leave the raised beds and the trellises framed in wood? Or do you want (can you) take those with you?

If new house isn't too far away and landlord doesn't have new tenants, maybe you can go back and finish the Sept harvest and fall clean up? Though I think you'll still have a good harvest by Sept 1. Even if he does have new tenants by then they might appreciate anything that's still bearing. Your garden is so neat (if you can keep it that way after you move) that I think it would be a "selling" point!

Congrats on your new farm - err, house!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
8 years ago
Alexis, Congratulations on the new house! What a great adventure you and your DH will have doing all the landscaping and garden building after you get settled into your new home, Your garden looks so lovely right now---it would break my heart to have to yank it out, but sometimes you have to make tough decisions like that. You'll have a lovely garden next year and every year thereafter.

I assume you're going to disassemble all the raised beds y'all built and take them and your great soil mix with you? That will give you a great head start on the new garden.

Look at it this way---the 100 degree days are arriving this week in the parts of OK that haven't already started hitting 100 degrees and once they arrive, the plants begin to struggle in the endless heat, so the garden productivity would start dropping off anyhow. That fact ought to make tearing out the garden somewhat less heartbreaking. I do hope you tear out your tomato plants last thing so that you can harvest as much as possible from them. Remember that any tomatoes that make it to the breaker stage will color up fine and taste great, so pick and save all those when it is time to take out the plants.

What a wonderful adventure you two are about to embark upon. I have such fond memories of our first home and how much fun we had not only with furnishing and decorating our home, but also with landscaping it, planting fruit trees and berries, and putting in our veggie and herb gardens and flower beds. So many wonderful decisions lie ahead for y'all and I know the two of you will create an awesome landscape and garden around your home.

Keep us posted on how its going. Have you broken the news to your dog that he's going to have a much larger yard? I bet he'll love it.

Dawn
Macmex
8 years ago
Beautiful garden! May you have the best success in your new one!

George
sorie6 zone 6b
8 years ago
Congratulations on your new place. I'd love to have your gardens!! Shows you have put a lot of heart and hard work in them. Good luck. I agree please keep us posted on the harvest and new place.
Lisa_H OK
8 years ago
Congratulations!!! Your current garden is lovely...I know you will have a great time making it even better!
OklaMoni
8 years ago
Alexis I am crying with you, but I am also very excited for you. You know how to do this now, and will be so successful at your own place. Good luck!

Moni
amunk01
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you thank you everyone for the compliments and well wishes! I really appreciate my gardenweb family! We feel so
incredibly blessed! I love my little space and will remeber it fondly! I put a lot of work into that yard even though i knew we would move within a few years. To answer a few of the questions Yes, I am most definitely taking my raised beds and anything else i can carry! I've been told my dirt is staying which i'm not too happy about, but if my DH says it stays i wont argue since he's paying his crew to move my stuff (he owns a landscaping company).
Im sure i will still get a decent harvest, but this was my first winter squash attempt so im sorry to miss out on that harvest. Dawn- im not too upset about ripping out the toms since they are being murdered via spider mites, i gave up after two attempts with Neem. I got too worried about killing the pollinators so the mites are winning by a landslide. Im sure the hot weather will finish the job nicely lol Regretably, Since we are breaking our lease early, my DH wants to have the yard as close to how we found it as possible so he has asked i pull everything and remove any plants where grass should be lol I had considered leaving a few things in case the next tenant was interested in gardening, but the hubby isnt thrilled about that idea. Thank you again Everyone, i will definitely keep you posted!

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