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Carol J. Michel

Award winner author of gardening humor books

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May Dreams Gardens

Clean Slate Garden

March 29, 2011 By Carol Michel 18 Comments

The potter has her lump of clay. The sculptor has his chunk of marble.

The artist has his clean canvas. The writer has her blank sheet of paper.

And the gardener?

The gardener has her cleared plot of land.

I had a landscaping crew clear out the vegetable garden today.

The rotted boards around the raised beds? Gone.

The bent and broken tomato stakes? Gone.

The piles of refuse on top of the compost bins? Gone.

I am literally and figuratively back to “square one” in my raised bed vegetable garden.

Later this week, I plan to lay out new garden beds, keeping in mind the “keyhole concept“, which I read about  in Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway. This was the book the garden designer left on my bench out front on one of her visits to my garden last spring.

I had hoped to rearrange the raised beds last fall, but the drought left the ground dry and hard and almost unworkable. Since then we’ve had snow and rain, and now it is spring and the garden is indeed all new again, a clean slate… literally.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: vegetable garden

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    March 29, 2011 at 4:22 am

    I'm really excited to see what you do with your blank slate. Happy Gardening!

    Reply
  2. growingagardenindavis says

    March 29, 2011 at 4:24 am

    It's such a wonderful opportunity to be able to start from scratch after gaining so much experience. I can't wait to see it develop.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous says

    March 29, 2011 at 5:01 am

    New gardens are so much like new babies. You go through the cute toddler stage, then the awkward teen years until you can let it go a bit as a young adult. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Annie in Austin says

    March 29, 2011 at 5:07 am

    Have fun with the keyhole design, Carol… boy, when you said blank slate you meant it! We've lived in a lot of different places but never had a blank slate. This will be interesting.

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

    Reply
  5. Patrick's Garden says

    March 29, 2011 at 5:27 am

    Thank you for being politicaly correct with the usage of his and her in your intro. It is so annoying when people just assume they are talking to women in their postings. Soap box put away.

    I'm glad you have the clean slate. I would find it a little overwhelming of what to plant. Good luck.

    Reply
  6. Fairegarden says

    March 29, 2011 at 10:37 am

    A clean slate and you are the artist, Carol. I like the idea of the keyhole, and look forward to seeing your actual design, wondering if it will be straight lines or are you going to get curvy? 🙂
    Frances

    Reply
  7. Gail says

    March 29, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    How very exciting~ I love your blank slate and can't wait to see what you paint/sculpt/design/plant in the garden. gail

    Reply
  8. Melissa says

    March 29, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    How exciting. Looking FWD to seeing what you create.

    Reply
  9. Lisa at Greenbow says

    March 29, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    Oh be still my heart. How terribly exciting to see a blank canvas. I bet you have been plotting all winter about what you want to do. I can't wait to see what you do. I have not read the book but I bet you have some great ideas. I hope you show us your progress.

    Reply
  10. carolee says

    March 29, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    Carol, give us an idea of the size..it's hard to grasp from your clean slate photo. Can't wait to see it develop!

    Reply
  11. Katie says

    March 29, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    How exciting! I made a big new garden bed, and I've been having all kinds of fun stuffing it chock-full!

    Reply
  12. Rose says

    March 29, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    What fun to start with a clean slate! I can't wait to see what you do with this space, Carol.

    Reply
  13. Marie says

    March 29, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    Wow! Very exciting. Can't wait to see more of the vegetable plot – and all your new gardens.

    Reply
  14. Dee @ Red Dirt Ramblings says

    March 29, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    I am so excited for you. I'm wondering about that concept and hope you will share more with us later.~~Dee

    Reply
  15. compost in my shoe says

    March 29, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    Can't wait to see how it develops. It is so wonderful to have been where you were to know where you want to go! Enjoy.

    Reply
  16. sb158 says

    March 30, 2011 at 1:55 am

    Love that book! It's one to which I refer constantly. I found it enlightening, to say the least. It completely changed my perspective on gardening in general, food gardening specifically. While I'm not going to go whole hog in a rented 20' wide yard, I am doing what I can to apply what I read to what I am doing out there.

    Reply
  17. Pam/Digging says

    March 31, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    How exciting! Big changes are afoot at May Dreams, I see. I look forward to the "after" images. Or "during," for that matter.

    Reply
  18. Mimis-Garden.com says

    April 3, 2011 at 11:43 pm

    Regardless of size, it looks like you had a harvest of some premium vegetables!

    Reply

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