What do you do with a pile of old bricks and a big empty space in the backyard?
Grow salad!
At least, that's the plan. Our backyard gets dappled sunlight year round and is currently a disaster mix of the previous tenant's low-maintenance (bark mulch covered and neglected) landscaping and the minimal work we've managed in between 'curb appeal' projects. Anything is better than what's there, so it makes experimenting more appealing.
I started with the pile of old bricks leftover from the walkway renovation project. I knocked the old mortar of some of them with a hammer, but I wanted a 'recycled' look, so I didn't strain myself cleaning them off. Then I cleared a space in the backyard of leaf-litter and debris.
I stacked the bricks two layers high, in a rough circle that backs up against the sidewalk for easy harvesting and maintenance. Inside, I laid a couple of the rougher nastier looking bricks to help bolster it up. Mine is just loose-stacked because our backyard is in a state of flux. If I don't like it in a month, or a year, I can just take it apart. If you want something permanent, I see no reason not to mortar the brick in place.My bed took three bags of soil, but since your bed will likely vary in size and shape, just take a rough measurement of depth and diameter and figure out how many cubic feed you'll want. I like the EBS Top Soil Plus blend, and I get it from Everygreen Nursery here in San Leandro. I Love Evergreen! The only problem is that it's too much fun! I generally spend an hour looking at everything (including saying hi to their beautiful koi) before getting down to business and finding what I need, which today was a heap of baby greens and some seeds.
In the very center, I planted a single dill plant, already well established from the nursery. It should grow tall and strong over the warmer months when the salad greens are fading. Around that, I grouped three varieties of lettuce, including a leaf lettuce entitled "Pinot Noir", presumably for its tasty purple color and a spiky leaf variety for texture, and some broad leaf spinach. I planted single variety clusters and then took the 'odd man out' and stucked them in here and there for pop appeal. Around the edges, where they can drape over, I planted a few strawberries.  |
| Sorry the pic is so yellow! My camera seems to be losing it's white balance. |
I seeded around all of that with edible viola, lemon basil and Grand Rapids leaf lettuce, all from Lilly Miller. Hopefully, they'll grow in and become the 'second crop'. I say hopefully because our backyard is rather wildlife friendly, and seeds and seedlings alike are tasty goods to our wild friends. Which brings me to my final step.
SLUGGO! That's right. Sluggo. I don't generally like baiting snails, but I've had it with them, and the gang at Evergreen promised me that this was the right stuff if I want stay organic and slay the slimy little suckers. The active ingredient is iron oxide which is present in most soils. Supposedly, the slugs and snails eat it on their way to the plants and it triggers their system to tell them that they're full, so they stop eating.
So there you go!
A few spare bricks, a couple bags of soil, and a handful of greens from the local nursery and now all I have to do is water and wait.
And wait. And wait.
And wait. And wait.
