The Garden Tour 2026 Part III

          On the blog for a few weeks we’re taking a break from the Fort Liberty series to talk about an event that happened in June.  There was an event at the Trial gardens, garden tour which is a yearly event held in the spring. You can see the full details of what the tour is, when it is held and other information about it on the July 16^th post at the link below.

 

https://bl2-litfm.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-garden-tour-2026.html

 

 

In today’s post we’re looking at the reconstruction of the Tall bed. Now despite what you see in the photos, this bed used to be even taller. Erosion of soil and the sinking of masonry caused it to lose height as I removed layers of bricks over the years. The only good solution was to use the same raised bed kit that I had used on the vegetable beds. Since it was a modular kit with a couple of standard shapes it could fit the shape perfectly.

 

The existing survey of plants in the bed with measurements based on old notes.

 

As the saying goes, measure twice cut once. I took a second measurement after I did the sketch just to be sure. That document in the  picture is the info pamphlet that comes with the modular garden kits and the cat is Kiki, she's the neighbors cat who comes over every time I'm in the garden.

 

Technically this isn't part of the process but, Kiki likes to ride around in then wheel barrow.

 

 

The next phase was brick removal, and at first I was moving them by the wheelbarrow load.

 

Then the supervisor got involved.

 

Finally I just started piling the bricks off to one side. This  is partially because I needed to see how deep the bricks had sunk into the ground.

 

Due tot he weight of the brick border the entire thing sank two full bricks in. this was both a good and bad thing because it wasn't too deep but also it still meant I had to carefully get a trenching shovel under the deepest layer to get them out.

 

The next step now all the bricks have been removed was to install the new raised bed kit. This is part of why I did extra measurements, I needed to know what the internal and external area of the bed was to make sure the raised bed kit would fit and what you see with that small amount of gap is exactly what you want.

 

The bed has been back filled with a mix of soil and mushroom compost in this picture.

 

 

This is the final product, hanging baskets, and the whole nine yards.

 

 

 

 

The Garden Tour 2026 Part II

 

          On the blog for a few weeks we’re taking a break from the Fort Liberty series to talk about an event that happened in June.  There was an event at the Trial gardens, garden tour which is a yearly event held in the spring. You can see the full details of what the tour is, when it is held and other information about it on the July 16^th post at the link below.

 

https://bl2-litfm.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-garden-tour-2026.html

 

Today we’re going to take a look at the reconstruction of the vegetable patch, which is an area dedicated to producing food by way of annual or biennial vegetables and fruit. During the summer it has historically produced Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Basil, Cowpeas, and Elephant Garlic. During the cold months its specialty is Cole crops such as Broccoli, Cauliflower, Collards, Kale, Arugula and, Radishes. Also this area has been used to produce Carrots and Celery. The bed however had a persistent issue with soil erosion and the encroachment of non-hybrid Bermuda grass and shoots form the neighbor’s Tree of Heaven. The soil erosion was the big problem because if I could not keep good soil in place, then any irrigation I did was less effective since what soil remained was not holding on to the water long enough to support my vegetable crops. The Vegetable bed was the first area to be upgraded as part of the plan to renovate ahead of the Garden Tour. The following series of pictures will show you what I did so that you can decide if it is something you would consider doing in your garden.

 

The first step is always measuring your area and then drawing up a plan. Each bed was six feet long by 3 feet and eight inches wide, and although not marked the area in between them is about two and a half feet wide. Because the modular raised bed kids have rounded corners in later planning sketches you'll see shadowed hard corners indicating negative space.

 

This is what it looked like before I started work. Only the four poles the surviving collard plants, the group of chicory plants and the nearly-buried paving stones in the middle indicate this was productive last year.

 

After the weeds and unwanted plants were cleared, the remaining amounts of decent soil were run through a compost sifter and put on the blue tarp. Some folks would not bother with this but I believe that in the sand hills even gray colored soil that doesn't look great is still better as a sub soil in a raised bed then buying bags of questionable topsoil at a place like Home Despot.

 

 

The excavated soil is then covered with a plastic sheet and the entire amount is covered to keep it dry while the rest of the preparation work is underway.

 

Once the first two raise bed kits are assembled, they are placed where the old vegetable beds used to be and the soil under the tarp is added. The two large pots off to the side are tree pots and they once contained annual crops that are now dead. The large pot's soil is added to the mix since it counts as being potentially near depletion. In the time between this picture and the last, I have cut down a Cattle Panel fence section, and you will be surprised at what I did with it.

 

Ultra Gross! Looks like my Sourdough recipe has gone horribly astray! Jokes aside, this is a storage tote full of stored Mushroom compost. It's sat in there for months and was set aside specifically for this very moment. The white stuff is fungi, but so is the  gray stuff. The liquid is from a process called Guttation, in which the very much alive fungi push out excess water  through their pores. Since this was in a sealed storage tote the extra moisture cant go anywhere and forms the yellow pools. It's harmless but mushroom compost that looks like this is worth it's weight in gold as a soil amendment and as a fertilizer.

 

The compost is hacked up to bits in my trusty wheelbarrow, and then distributed equally in both beds. It is a nutrient rich cap for the subsoil layer and in fall the mushrooms may emerge and produce caps.

 

Over the mushroom Compost is a fresh layer of potting soil straight from the 72 liter bag. The type I use is just soil, no wetting agents, no fertilizer, no additives. 

 

The Cattle Panel Arch is installed in the middle of the filling process to make sure the support rods and everything holding it in the earth is deep enough. After that one bed is fully topped off with Potting soil and then the other which is unfinished in the picture gets the same soil treatment.

 

Now for the planting, take a look at the next two pictures for closeups.

 

 

Here's the right side, and from the bottom left: Fern Leaf Yarrow, Lavender, Elephant Garlic, Green Fennel, Patio Baby Eggplant, Marigolds, Cherokee Purple Tomato, Cucumbers, Yellow Salad Onions, Sweet Basil, Green Fennel, Orange You Sweet Pepper, Brandywine Tomato, Summer Squash.

 

The left side bed, plants from lower left: Lamb's Ear, Lemon Thyme, Mounding Blue Rue, Marigolds, Dandelion, Patio baby Eggplant, Green Fennel, Lemon Cherry Tomato, Yellow Salad Onions, Cucumbers, Sweet Basil, Lemon Cherry Tomato, Orange You Glad Peppers, Green Fennel, Summer Squash.

 

Just as I thought I was done, Polka who is one of the farm cats reminded me I forgot to put the pine straw out and put back the pavers.

 

This is how it looked when finished.