The future of K's garden

I definitely have my work cut out for me at the new place. The previous owners were not vegetable gardeners, and the only gardens are ornamental. I'll be starting from scratch for vegetables, and things will be a little different at this place.

At this point, I'm just beginning to plan, but I do know that the garden will consist of raised beds this time around. I had already decided to transition to raised beds in the old garden before we decided to move, so I was going to be spending my fall building beds no matter what.

Here is what the place looks like now. Hopefully, next year at this time it'll be full of vegetables.

This swingset sits on a giant gravel pit edged by railroad ties. Apart from pulling out the weeds and getting rid of the swingset, I won't be doing much here. D has decided this would make a great kubb pit. Since I don't know what else it would be good for (other than possibly a chicken coop), who am I to argue?

Looking west from the kubb pit, is an open area that will certainly contain several beds. What the picture doesn't show is that, on the left of the picture is a short-but-steep slope towards the house, and to the right of the picture is a steeper slope to the fence. This flat area in between the slopes, though, is fairly level and gets lots of sun.

This is the view to the left of the picture above.

This is the west end of the yard:

The yard slopes again this direction, and this is a nice flat area. One would think this is the perfect place for all of the beds, but this is where the horseshoe pit is. The grass and weeds were so long when I took this picture, that you can hardly see the stakes, but one of the back boards is almost visible next to the trash can and pile of stumps. The pit is fairly close to that brick retaining wall on the right, so there probably is room for a few beds down here.

A closer view of the south end. That's a fire pit and a patio, but the weeds had grown so thick between the pavers that it's hard to see the patio. On top of that retaining wall is some of the landscaping, mostly day lilies (Stella d'Oro, my least favorite kind), shrubs that I haven't identified, and weeds. I did find one tomato plant up there that I believe might be Juliette. Grape-shaped tomatoes that are two to three inches long.

Leading to the patio, and mostly obscured by weeds, are stepping stones shaped like feet. Just in case bigfoot can't find his way to the fire.

A view from the deck, a few days later, after I finally mowed:

As you can see, there would be plenty of work to do, even if I wasn't planning to build beds this fall. And that's just on the outside. If this blog wasn't just about the garden, I'd show you the inside and everything I want to do there. For starters, every room needs to be painted, and pretty much every light fixture needs to be changed. I'm going to be busy here for years.