Gone. All gone.

The New Egyptian garden is gone. In October (09) I tore up the raised beds, cold frames and raked everything smooth then planted grass seed. One would think that this is a bad thing. No, it's a good thing because Kathy and I bought a house on 1.05 acres. No more landlord. The house is in Cream Ridge, a few miles away from New Egypt and I have to say wow! The property is huge. At least compared to the rented property in New Egypt. I could easily fit five or six of the New Egyptian gardens on it. The soil is quite a bit more sandy here. One might think that this is a bad thing. No, it's a good thing as sandy soil has good drainage and one can make excellent garden soil with it by adding compost. The biggest advantage is that there is no idiot landlord to complain and get me all upset and ready to commit murder. It's mid December right now so I am doing no gardening save for planning, browsing seed catalogs and occasionally watering the strawberry plants that I dug up from the New Egyptian garden and potted up. I also have some artichoke plants overwintering in the garage with the strawberries. I hope they don't succumb to the cold. My plans are a bit different for the new garden. I can now have perennial plants. Fruit trees! Raspberry and blueberry bushes! Asparagus! In addition I plan to spread the crops all over the property instead of one area. I'll stick to raised beds but hope to be able to make them more attractive as well as longer lived than the painted plywood that I used in New Egypt which was pretty much rotted out after three years in the ground. I plan to put in some ornamentals as well. The Burpee catalog has something called "Pink Pampas" that look like poofy pink cat-tails. They are an ornamental grass and I think I'll look for other color variations as I like the idea of ornamental grass (that I don't have to mow). As winter progresses I'll post more ideas (mostly so I don't forget them) and start on a mulch pile. There is a large beech tree in the back that provides lots of leaves to that end and three oak trees in front. One may have to come down as it is too close to the other two and is also very close to the neighbors power lines as well. There are other trees scattered about and bordering the property, mostly evergreens. The property is divided by the four buildings, the house, garage and two sheds. The bulk of the open space is behind the garage and sheds which are clustered together. I estimate the open space to be around half an acre. It would make a wonderful large garden but we need some space to frolic, set up kiddie pools, play catch and have loud outdoor parties late into summer nights. It is a corner lot with neighbors on two sides. The neighbor to the east was the previous owner and seems to be a nice guy. He builds hotrods too which is a relief to me as I have a vintage car that neighbors sometimes complained about because they saw it as only an old car that rarely moved. Some people are "ignant" about such things, sometimes viewing a garden only a collection of funny looking plants that need to be mowed and turned into a sterile, featureless expanse of grass and sprayed with fertilizer and poison. I doubt I'll have to worry about that. The property across the street is a farm. I'm going to try not to get too carried away. I tend to get carried away with some things as some people know well. But I would really like to set up a greenhouse, just a small one, probably behind the garage and out of sight. I prefer to start plants from seed, both because it is more economical and because I really enjoy the process. I can't wait until spring.