I got the kleingarten! I got the kleingarten! I got the kleingarten! Wooohoooo!
If you are wandering what a kleingarten is, it is a small urban garden / allotment here in Germany that you can use and enjoy as long as you pay the rent. I managed to get a kleingarten (in future use garden). I have to start our new garden from scratch, better said sketch, because it is in such a bad state. There’s almost nothing there that can be left and that does not need clearing. So let’s start.
I got the new garden, now what?
If you got virgin patch of land, then you can make a design and follow it. If you got the garden that already was a garden, there are some things you can do.
- check the plants that are there and you know
- decide what you want to do with it (complete redesign, use existing elements, nothing, …)
- prepare it for the next season or just enjoy it how it is for one year so you see what you have
For me there was no choice. Mine was and still is in a bad shape. The pond was nicknamed pond from hell. The old veg patch is completely overgrown with various weeds. The shrubs and grass are too overgrown, and the trees are just a mess. Then only logical solution is to start anew. Some features, like pond, will sty where they are but will get a new look. others will be moved to a completely different place.
When to prepare the garden
There is just one rule i abide by:
as long as there is no snow on the ground or the temperatures below freezing, you can work in the garden and prepare it. There is no set time, only weather. Usually it is October and November for temperate climate. When you stop wearing short sleeves outside, you can start preparing your garden. Autumn on Northern Hemisphere is the best time for preparing the garden, but it can be done in other seasons as well.
Since I got the garden now in late autumn, and I have to prepare it before the winter, of course I failed miserably. Next week is going to start snowing, and the garden is not nearly prepared for spring. We will be preparing parts of it all winter, if and when the weather allows it.
Why is preparing garden important?
It is important to prepare the land and the plants as best as possible before the winter and cold. And that is due to couple of reasons:
- You want to protect the things that are sensitive against the cold
- Allow the cold to kill as much pests on the plants as possible
- If you have clay soil and expose it to the cold the cold will help you in making the chunks of soil smaller. They are then in spring easier to manipulate.
- Cold and frost may kill some of the pests and diseases in the soil.
- Removing weeds allows your plants better fighting chance, and even though some may spring up in the spring, the small plants will be more easy to remove then their older counterparts.
First Steps
The first step to any new garden is garden design. Do not think that only because it is a small garden you don’t have to plan or design it. For small spaces design is crucial.
So even if you have an kleingarten or allotment, think what you want to have there. Will you grow only veg, or will you also grow fruits and have some fruit trees in it? How about roses? What shrubs if any are you going to add? If you inherited a garden, what current features do you like? What would you like to keep? What do you want to take out? When all this is though of, and you have actually made your sketch, you can proceed with other steps.
Prepare the soil in the veg patch
You have determined the position of your new veg patch. Now we can prepare it. Study the current plants and weeds in that area and mark you veg patch area (you can use paint, cord or sand to mark it). Now comes the difficult part – removing of the rhizomes weeds and tilling the patch.
To prepare the soil in our new veg patch, we had to remove ALL of the existing weeds and also till the soil. The first step was to actually remove the weeds with big roots, and we had A LOT of weeds that had huge rhizomes and roots. They had to be all dug up, no other option. And after that we were able to till that patch of the land. Plants that I found there and wanted to keep were moved to new position. The weeds that were now uprooted but on the surface, I removed with the rakes. This also made the soil particles small and loose.
This time we did not add any manure or other slow releasing fertilizer because I still need to see how “strong” is the soil and how much fertilizing it needs. Over fertilization is as bad as under fertilization. So I did not want to add anything at this moment. The second reason is because I really want the land to freeze this year. So cold kills as much pests and disease as possible. Then in the spring I plan to add the compost and rake it in to add a bit of the goodness before seeding the veggies.
Trim existing trees & shrubs
If like me you have existing trees, then decide which ones you will keep and which ones you won’t. Then trim the ones you will keep and remove or at least start removing ones you won’t. If trees have a lot of branches in the wrong direction and dead wood discard them all. If it is autumn, then don’t do a hard trim. Wait for February and then be brutal. Remove all dead wood, all branches that cross each other. And shape the tree. I always think how the dead wood is like an itch on the plant and that the plant is relieved when we remove it. This helps me to remove all of the diseased and dead branches.
Those trees and shrubs that you want to remove, you can hard prune. And if the time allows even take out. Don’t stress about them still being there. You just started. You can live one year with a displaced bush or two. If it is in your way, then remove it. If not, then just cut it to the managable size. It may die until next year anyway.
Plant the new trees and shrubs
If you are preparing your garden in autumn or early spring, then this is the best time to plant the trees. If you did your design and know how you want your garden to look, then start by adding the trees. Trees are a structural element and will determine the first outlook of your garden. Do not plant the trees if you are not sure of their position. Do not even buy them if you still have doubts. If you know what tree you want in which spot, then buy the tree for THAT spot and plant it there. You don’t have to plant the trees all in one go.
Add the Hardscape
If you are planing to have water feature or some other hardscape feature. Make sure to mark the areas. Even if you can’t actually make them now, you can start by clearing the area of the grass and weeds. If you have plants that are going to be residents of that area, then add them according to the markings. You don’t have to make a hardscape from rock on the start. But you can make something similar to the final idea using wood or mulch. For instance, if you plan to have an area covered in stone tiles or gravel, you can first cover it with mulch. Then later on you can replace the mulch with gravel or stones.
Plan the borders
If you have enough space and you want to have some flower borders, then plan them now. You can also start them by removing the grass in that area and preparing the soil the same way we prepared the veg patch. I cannot stress how crucial it is to actually dig up and pull out the rhizomes and thick roots of the weeds from that area. You can even put the cardboard on prepared land and leave it over winter. SO nay chance of emerging weeds is eliminated as best as possible.
For this first year, you can just use bedding plants in the borders, and annuals. Then slowly add more and more perennials as the year passes by. You don’t have to have the lush perennial border first year all ready.
Don’t try to do all at once
Yeah, you thought of great plans and ideas for your garden, but guess what? It does NOT have to be done now. Really. You have time. You can re-plan some areas. Some ideas that you like now my not seem so great after couple of months, so don’t stress about it. We all wish to have a perfect garden, but perfect garden takes time. Don’t rush it. Enjoy the travel as well as the goal. And don’t forget. Even if you make a mistake, you can redo it. Remember to have fun!