Gardener Back On Track

Lawn cut in half, brick in place, shrubs transplanted and temporary fencing up to keep the dogs out of the work area.

Well before my last two posts I was going to post about some big changes that are taking place in the gardens here at Menagerie Manor.  Unfortunately plans do get changed so the garden has been on hold for a bit.  I am hoping to get out there and resume work soon. In the thirty five years that we have lived at Menagerie Manor the landscape has undergone quite a few changes.
Faze one, at time of purchase, was lawn from border to border.
Faze two, the back of the property became a myriad of gravel pathways with plantings on all sides and no lawn.
Faze three, I found out that I was going to become a father and immediately removed pathways and plantings and installed a large lawn, play structure and a tree house with a glider mechanism that carried many a squealing child from tree house, traversing the lawn and stopping at the play structure on the other side of the yard.
Faze four, empty nest.  No more play structure, tree house removed as well although I had a tuff time taking down the glider.  Built a very large koi pond with foot bridge and turned the gardens into a fairly tropical paradise.  The one thing I have always enjoyed was vegetable gardening, but with the addition of the large greenhouse, chicken house, bird aviary and a four car garage instead of the single one.......well there just was no more room for the garden of choice.  I talked to the owner of the nursery behind us and asked if they would be willing to sell five or ten feet of the adjoining land but the answer was NO.  Always the optimist, I sat on the bench and pondered my predicament.  I was looking at the back drop of foliage to the rear of the property and then it hit.  Transplant! That was it, dig out a portion of the back lawn and move everything forward turning all that is currently foliage into bare ground, to be planted with vegetables the following spring.
Faze five, old man spent all of a weekend removing sod, amending soil and transplanted a Coral Bark Maple before old man hobbled into house and collapsed in a whining heap not moving until bed time.  When faze five is completed and at this rate I would estimate 2015, I will have lovely rows of corn and every other sort of vegetable for the table.  In the mean time could somebody pass the liniment?