Garden placement problem

15 years ago

Hello,I am looking for suggestions for a problem that just arose with my home garden. I am interested in Permaculture, but don't know enough to know what to do and was hoping someone more knowledgeable could help me out.

The only sunny spot in my yard for a veggie garden is on the side of the house and the garden borders the neighbors driveway. The garden patch starts near my house and goes to about 2-3 feet from the property line. Currently, the neighbor's driveway only goes to the front of their house and stops short of my garden patch. A new family just moved in next door and they indicated they want to extend the drive way back this year and possible put in a garage in the back yard next year. The drive way would then extend the entire length of my garden patch and would be precariously close to the garden.

I am afraid of contaminants like ice melting salt or motor oil, etc. that could get into my garden soil from their driveway from rain runoff or from snow blowing during winter. The yard slopes downward from the propertly line to my garden. I also worry part of my garden getting packed down.

Does anyone have any suggestions for mitigating this? I intend on going ahead with the garden as planned this year, just bringing it in a few more feet from their driveway. I'm more concerned about next year, especially if they don't put in a garage and park next to garden all year round. I really don't want to go to a container garden if at all possible and am considering putting in raised beds or a small greenhouse or placing fruit trees there.

Thanks for any advice.

Comments (4)

stoneunhenged
15 years ago
Elevate your beds with a raised bed garden design.
drummer_dan
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the reply. Raised beds is the route I am leaning towards. I talked with the neighbors last night and they are going to prune a tree that goes over their house and that will give me more morning light for my current patch. I then will be able to expand the garden towards the back of the house. So I may be able to turn this negative into a positive by adding more garden space!
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stoneunhenged
15 years ago
Plus, the raised beds allow you to put in hyper-productive compost to compensate for a little lack of sunlight. My raised bed veggies are twice as big as my conventional garden veggies.
drummer_dan
Original Author
15 years ago
The game plan I came up with over the weekend is to make a small terrace with retaining wall blocks I have on hand and then put raised beds on the terrace. I then will make a small swale in front of the terrace for water to run away from the garden to lessen any possible effects of salt. Since I've already planted things, I will have to wait until fall to do the work. That's OK, i have enough things to keep me busy until then.

The part of the yard I want to add more garden space is full of creeping charley. I was thinking about lasagne gardening that part, but wasn't sure if the cardboard would in effect kill off the good bacteria in the soil. Any thoughts?