The soil is still trashed and absolutely full of rock-hard bamboo roots. So we built the garden up, with raised beds. The bottom layer of the beds is the rotting limbs of the giant dead oak tree we found hiding in the middle of the bamboo. On top of that is a layer of sandy soil excavated from a building site and then kept under weed cloth for a year. Then a layer of leaf litter, and finally a layer of high-dollar organic compost (worth every penny).
The bed walls are cedar boards, milled from trees that were being cleared locally. In fact, almost everything in our garden was free, found or repurposed. Our ability to source and store free materials locally was key to pulling this off. We never would have been able to afford the materials had we had to buy them from a garden center. So there's a lot of privilege tied up in this garden (not to mention to cost of buying a house & yard--even one covered in bamboo--in this town).
It may not be the highest and best use of in-town land, but it's the best use we're legally allowed. So for now, we garden. And we eat and share amazing produce, listen to birds, watch delirously happy bees, get dirty, take notes, and keep the tv off. It keeps us out of trouble, and that's not nothing.
@Kyleric a million times better!
@DrTCombs It’s definitely a better use of land than a thicket of bamboo!