Starting our backyard garden from scratch.

When we first moved back to my hometown back in April 2021, we started with very little and almost nothing. We managed to bring back a few small trees like Mahkota Dewa and roselle. But honestly, most of the seeds that we used to begin this backyard garden were from online orders. Or from seeds of the vegetables and fruits that we eat in our own kitchen.

My aim for this backyard is just as a starting point to learn to homestead and growing more plants. It is far from being self-sustainable for our family of 12. But it should provides a little of herbs and veges that I don't need to buy from shops. I can just pick and put it in my dishes.

We started with bare land, red clay soil. Almost no organic matter. It was not plantable at all at first.

I have always dreamed of having raised beds in the city, so that was the first thing that I wanted to put right away from the beginning.

We just used old timber left by my late father alhamdulillah.

And alhamdulilllah, the backyard  is cleared and flat so we can put the raised bed right away with much ease.

By looking at the raised bed now, obviously we have never done it before. Haha.

We started with making three big squares, which then further divided into small boxes.

Should I have to redo it again, I will make it into a few rectangles only 4 feet wide for ease of reach by hand and I don't have to step into the box to reach for the ones in the middle. 

Our very first raised bed. Rather than filling all the space with raised beds, we leave plenty of space for pathways because I imagined the kids can run in between safely and comfortably (which they did. A lot!), and a space to hang out and do gardening activities too.  Alhamdulillah, I'm glad we did. 

Secondly, filling the soil. 

Before this, we only get our soil from nursery or garden supply since we were planting in pots.

So, learning the types of soil suitable for growing on the ground is new lesson for us. 
We learned that it will cost a lot to fill all the garden beds with store bought soil.
So I mixed them with red soil available on the land.

And obviously, it did not help in growing our veges! Lesson learned, and since then I have been learning to make compost, the cheaper way to add organic matter and make the soil healthy and plantable.

Red clay soil in the first two top boxes failed to grow any seeds. It was purely experimental and I learned how important it is to be extra patient and start with good soil to begin with for more success in gardening.

 So if your soil is like ours, only clay and little organic matter and sand, the very first step is always to take time to prepare the soil, rather than getting excited and plant the seeds right away.

This reminds me that preparing the environment in or on which any seeds to grow with is very important, be it plants, human or animals. It must be conducive and healthy, so that our children, plants and animals can grow and thrive successfully,biiznillah.
I know that some plants can still grow on clay soil, but even very hardy seeds are difficult to grow.

It takes a lot of effort and the energy is much wasted.

That's all for now, may Allah reward us for trying and learning to plant to feed our family inshaaAllah. Ameen.