Changes to the garden - before it even starts

We are getting to know our neighbors already and like them a lot. Community can be a little hard to find in a rural setting, but happily that isn't the case on our little stretch of road in Leavenworth County, KS.

Late last Summer, our neighbor Keith stopped by on his 4-wheeler to ask if we wanted to sign a petition to chip and seal the portion of 178th Street between Evans Road and Kansas Avenue. Currently our road is gravel with all the dust, noise and mud one might imagine. So paving (as in chip and seal) changes all of that. It will be a much better maintained road year-round.

Unfortunately, the change in road surface also means the county has access to more of our little acreage. They require an easement that will destroy a windbreak of mature (12 foot tall) cedar trees that borders the west edge of the area on our property where we will have our vegetable gardens.

You can see in this photo the cedars and the flag that marks where the easement will extend into our property. And all the cedars will need to go.

So, since the road project will happen in 2016 (I think), we have a little time to grow some new trees. We hope to start planting those in March. I know, it will take more than a couple of years to get them as tall as the trees we have now. But at least I won't be tempted to plant things too close to the road and there will be some visual screen that still makes it feel cozy :-)