FarmCity Food Garden Construction

Some of Our Recent Work

We've recently built a great little balcony package: a very simple potting table, a three-tiered planter, and a matching shelf on which to put more pots.  Made of finely sanded cedar, the table was finished with varnish to protect it from weathering (not yet done in this photo), while our clients decided to leave the planter and shelves to the elements: they'll weather to a lovely silvery grey.  We photographed the combination in our own yard, but it was custom built to fit a balcony approximately 5-1/2 x 13 feet, with room to spare for people and cats alike!

We also recently built a lovely kitchen garden over on West 15th Avenue.  The small yard of one half of a duplex, it had a perfectly nice lawn, but our clients, Will & Nina, didn't use it at all.  So instead, they put in a series of four raised beds - enough to grow a substantial part of their diet over the seasons!  And in order for our clients not to have to mow between the beds, we also installed river rock paths between.  Check out the link just above for a fuller description and more photos. 

Will & Nina are brand new gardeners, but just jumped right in - within a couple weeks of our building the garden beds, I got an email from Will: their spinach is coming up already, and there're other crops on the way!  Not only that, but Will has started a blog about the progress of their garden.  Check it out!  www.veggardenexperiment.wordpress.com

A Grape Arbour on a New Deck: The Yew Street Project

This is one way to accommodate the needs of a food garden, while also making a beautiful, usable space for the human inhabitants of the garden! Below are a few shots of our most recent project, completed at the end of February: overlooking the back yard, a new deck and stairs, made to host a beautiful old grape vine.

The first shot shows the new deck - and stairs up and down - before we added the grape arbour (the owner needed time to think about just what was wanted for the vine!) Then we added the arbour, and tied the vine (dormant at this time of year) to it. 

The grape will grow quickly come summer, across the arch, along the bars towards the wall of the house, where the arbour becomes a series of parallel wires for the vine to spread out on. Not only will the vine no longer impede the stairs (it used to grow all over the lower stairs), but it will now get great sun exposure, so the grapes can ripen to full perfection! 

The added bonus is that in the summer, the vine's dense foliage will create a beautiful, shady cover for the people of the house (imagine a long, cold drink at your elbow, while you dream in the summer heat), and will help to keep the house cool, too! For further photos of this and other FarmCity projects, check out our Recent Projects page!