GARDENING IN A SMALL SPACE IN YOUR BACKYARD

I am sure you have heard the old saying, “if you have a pot to cook in, then you can cook something,” well gardening works the same way.

If you have flower pot to grow in, then you can garden. 

Whether the flower pot is placed on your porch or along the fence line in your yard, you can garden!

So here’s the skinny on converting your backyard into a garden.

HOW WE CONVERTED OUR BACKYARD INTO A GARDEN

For us our garden took shape outside in our backyard. 

This transition did not happen over night, but almost by accident. 

I know you are trying to figure out what rabbit hole I am dropping down here.

Well our garden is located within a fenced in area of our backyard. 

The fenced enclosure was used as a large kennel for our dogs when they were puppies and we had to leave the house for a quick errand.

Puppies will tear up everything…but that is another story for another time. 

Once our dogs graduated to be trusted by themselves in our backyard, alone, we now had this empty fenced in space and decided to create some raised beds within it.

We knew we did not want to splurge and spend a ton of money, so we made our raised beds with materials we had on hand. 

While walking around our backyard we looked behind our shed and found some cinderblocks, and some wood.

Our backyard has rocks and I mean large rocks, not pebbles, which we decided to volunteer as part of our materials in creating our raised beds.

They were heavy, but FREE!

With a few trips of a wheelbarrow we were able to carry a pile full of rocks through this fenced in area and develop raised garden beds.

Check out our video where we provide a garden tour and provide tips on building raised beds out of repurposed materials.

HOW TO CONVERT YOUR BACKYARD INTO A GARDEN

If you are wondering how you can get started in converting your backyard into a garden, not to worry.

Here are the steps to create a raised bed and convert your backyard into a garden:

1. Mark out the perimeter to the specs you want to place your raised bed
2. Lay out and build the bottom half of your structure so it’s strong enough to support the structure to avoid a blow out down the road
3. Frame out the top portion of your raised beds utilizing something flat such as wood or corrugated panel
4. Grab old cardboard boxes you no longer want, flatten them out and place them at the bottom as weed barrier
5. Next is leaves, if you have any leaves in your yard place them at the bottom to serve as a compost layer which will help build your soil’s nutrients as time goes on
6. Pour four 20lb bags of dirt on top of the leaves and begin planting your garden

There you have it, a raised bed!

It’s time to convert your backyard into a garden.

BENEFITS OF RAISED BEDS IN A BACKYARD GARDEN

Once you have your raised beds and start growing in it, the hard work you completed will definitely pay off.

Raised beds have a variety of benefits:

• They are great for a small yard to create a space to grow in
• The soil will warm up faster in the Spring helping create more desirable Ph levels to grow in
• It’s easier to manage the weeds because you have a small controlled environment to watch over
• The bed provides great drainage which helps prevent soil compaction
• It can be a fun and beautiful aesthetic to your yard especially when you start seeing all the green leafs from your garden’s vegetable and flowers

The money savings comes into play if you are able to utilize the materials you have around you.

By repurposing materials you have on hand the cost of building a raised bed will mostly come down to sweat equity.

Best of luck on your journey in converting your backyard into a garden. 

Keep us posted and send us a comment on how your adventure unfolds.