We are slowly immersing ourselves into a backyard makeover at my inlaws house out here in SoCal that will include, if we are luckly, a sustainable multi-family garden. We are about 2 months into the planning, and expect to break ground around mid November. This is a pretty daunting project, and we know we have an incredibly long way to go, but God willing and the creek don't rise, we will have some big rewards to show for our efforts next summer.

This all started with my wife who wanted to give something back to her folks for all their years of generousity and support. So she approached her three siblings about the idea of making over mom & dad's severely lacking backyard as a way to say thanks. And when I say lacking, I mean it in the literal sense. Their rear yard measures 39' x 60', slopes in 2 different directions, and consists of dead grass surrounded by chain link fence. Just buying them a new garden hose would qualify as a major upgrade at this point.

The new plan calls for a brick retaining wall, leveling out the yard, and a cedar fence to enclose everything. We also intend to incorporate a total of nine 4'x8' raised planter boxes (3 the first year and then 3 more each additional season) along with a dozen or so fruit bearing trees around the perimeter of the yard. We're hoping to finish it all off with a wood deck and pergola that will provide a place for the 16 of us to come together for some much needed family time.

All in all everyone is very excited over the pending project, and we are moving faster that we originally anticipated. My personal contribution will be plumbing the yard and planter boxes for drip irrigation, as well as building the planter boxes themselves.

It is my intention to detail the prject as we go with both narrative and pictures so we have a some kind of documented record to show for all our hard work.

Hopefully, when all is said and done the fun will far out weigh the frustration and all of us can sit back and enjoy our weekends together with the knowledge that we came together as a family and created something that we could all share in.

Brett

Keep us posted. I'd love to see your progress along the way!

Can't wait ot see how things turn out. I just love working on new garden projects!

Liisa

I just picked up some redwood for the first box and am looking forward to building #1 in the comfort of my garage. I'll be building these in a modular fashion so they can be transported and assembled on site. Since this is more of a backyard remodel - that just happens to contain a garden - my box design is a little more complex and more dual purpose (deeper and fancier) on the off chance the family loses interest and these things wind up growing flowers.

One thing my wife is set on is each box is to have it's own trellis that, instead of running down one of the 8' sides, will divide the box in half (making 2 4-foot sections). Which, given our layout, means the trellis will run north/south to take east/west sun. IIRC, that goes against Mel's recommendation of east/west orientation to take in the south sun. But given that we get loads of sun out here and have crazy long growing seasons I'm wondering if it is really going to make a difference either way.

Wife says we'll just grow the low light stuff on the east side and the higher light stuff on the west.

Who am I to argue? My job is to cut wood.

Post pictures! We'd all love to see your progress, especially the before/after shot.

I should be able to have some pics up of the yard demo in 3-4 weeks (hopefully). We've narrowed it down to 1 fence contractor and we have confirmed the neighbor will go in halves with us on our shared portion of the fence. I'm optimistic I can have the first 3 boxes ready by the first of the year.

Another question if someone would be so kind. The wife says Mel reccomends leaving the grids in place full time, but I'd rather go with something that can be removed after planting and moved from box to box. From my point of view making 1 grid is a lot less work than making 9, but if there is a legitimate reason...

Brett

Liisa

The reason for a permanent grid is convenience. It's easier to leave the grid on the box so you can get the spacing right, plus it looks nice. I would personally make a grid for each box, but I do agree that 9 is a lot to make. You could do as Liisa suggested and make it out of some kind of twine. Nylon would last for a very long time and comes in multiple colors.

It's up to you. If you don't mind moving the grid each time you want to plant, go ahead and make one. My only concern is replanting when other plants are growing in other squares. It would be difficult to replace the grid when you have plants growing all over the box.

At the bottom of the link below you can see a picture of how I used the nails.