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Sandy: We're here, actually behind your garage. And I'm assuming this probably wasn't the pride and joy when you first
moved in for the most part. MG: Not at all. It was poison ivy and an ex-construction site.
Sandy: So lots of, you know a lot of people consider the back of the garage the dumping ground for the most part.
But this is actually gorgeous. And I think this is actually a really good way for people to get some ideas about using
really, you know fruit plants, vegetables in a small space. So what were you thinking when you came up with this design?
MG: I spent a lot of time looking at books. And finding designs that I liked; they were usually herb gardens.
And so I was looking for something pretty structural. And still something that would grow, you know, a salad.
That's about really all that you can get out of this, but you can get a lot of variety.
Sandy: Okay so you actually have fruit plants, you have blueberries, you have raspberries,
you have an espaliered gooseberry, which I've never seen before.
MG: And on the north side of the garage. Sandy: And that's done well for you evidently.
MG: It's got thorns as gooseberries do. It gets big berries that are very tart, shall we say sour, and crunchy.
Sandy: Now did you find you had to use a lot of compost and kind of dealt with the issues of whatever was left here?
MG: Yes. Right. Sandy: And then went in and did a certain amount of compost.
So as far as vegetable selection, were there certain ones that you really felt like you wanted or
would do well in this area? I think, do you even have soybeans? MG: We do. Sandy: Some edamame.
So you packed in all kinds of things. So what kinds of other things do you have here?
MG: I was looking for things with color and things that grew in small spaces so there are baby garden
vegetables. Baby carrots, baby eggplants, things of that kind.
And square-foot gardening helped with finding plants and figuring out how to space them.
Sandy: Great. This is actually a beautiful garden Kay, and I think it's one of those things that people can just, take home lesson is:
you can use those unusable spaces, make them usable and really cram a lot of vegetables and fruits in a small space.
So thanks a lot for your ideas.