"xkatx" wrote in message
news:lMSde.1209653$Xk.430617@pd7tw3no...
Hi!
Last year, I had made an attempt at a small garden under my kitchen window
with a few random flowers and veggies. I had very little luck, but I
tried.
As far as the flowers went, I had just bought some small, random potted
ones
and stuck them in the dirt. For veggies, I had some carrots and peas, as
well as a few small strawberry plants. I had no carrots, as they didn't
grow and were just a waste, about 10 edible strawberries between 5 plants
and about a handful of good peas.

The dirt under the window is not the greatest. It was full of leaves and
pine needles from a big tree right above the little garden area, and there
was little sun due to this huge tree. The dirt was really bad as well.
It
was rock solid, dry and full of roots, weeds and other debris that I spent
hours cleaning out before planting. I also put in 2 big bags of peat
moss,
when a friend suggested that to help the soil become a bit less dry.

A few days ago, the city came and cut down the mentioned big tree, due to
a
new city bylaw. I rent, so I didn't care, and now it's nothing but
sunlight
on this small garden area. I had been outside earlier today trying to
work
the soil up a bit and make it into more garden friendly soil than what it
was - rock solid dirt.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to have a better chance
of
a normal, decent garden this year? My son and I are home all day and we'd
like to start and successfully maintain a small little garden, similar to
what we tried last year.

I don't want to make silly mistakes, and I have been working on clearing
out
all the dead leaves, pine needles and garbage (paper, grass, cigarette
butts, whatever else is found in there)
Earlier today, the ground was so solid I couldn't even dig it up, so I ran
the hose over it for a while and turned it to mud, which allowed me to dig
a
bit easier.

Any help, suggestions, recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much.

I would try a raised bed garden. The simplest is to use 4" black plastic
lawn edging held down with stiff wire stakes pushed into the ground and bent
over the top. Look in the fence department for the wire.
You can work in some peat moss again, although I abandoned that for
straight compost and "lasagna gardening", where you layer organic materials
and don't dig. You'll have to buy bagged compost this year, but start a
compost pile and prep the bed in the fall for next year.

Lasagna Gardening 101
http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm