A while back, I talked about giving new life to old things being a big part of our homesteading philosophy. Repurposing is another means by which that can be accomplished. I wouldn’t say we figured out how to give new life to an unsightly pile of base gravel left behind from our concrete Morton floor, but we definitely figured out how to repurpose it.

We envision spending a lot of time in our Morton building working on endless, lifelong projects. We usually get a nice cross-breeze when we open both the 14’ x 14’ overhead doors, which makes it quite comfortable.

Naturally—for me—the next step to summer project comfort is reducing the number of ticks and mosquitoes in my general vicinity. I decided I wanted to plant perennials that deter said pests around our new building.

We haven’t yet dropped road gravel around the Morton, so I carved out a little space for some natural deterrents. If we went ahead and planted right off the bat, our tender repellent plants would soon be buried under gravel, so we knew we had to build them up a bit so they’d be at future ground level. We decided to build a block barrier to keep the road gravel out and plants and soil in. That’s where this leftover pile of base gravel came in.

First, we determined what size bed area to cordon off. We chose a 30’ x 4’ rectangle for several reasons.

1. That size would require the least number of cuts based on the size of the blocks we had chosen.

2. A 4’ width wouldn’t get in the way of pulling a trailer through and around our building. We don’t want to be pulling a trailer wheel across the corner of our planting bed because we sized something incorrectly!

3. A 30’ length was just about as long as we could make it, while still leaving enough space between the new blocks and the doorway openings to have the planned concrete aprons poured, which will extend one foot wider than the edges of the doorways.

We measured and marked out the rectangular bed and started transporting the base gravel around the building, one wheelbarrow full at a time. We then shoveled the gravel onto the perimeter lines for the planter bed. The tamper we acquired for shaping the creek beds came in handy again here. We packed down and leveled the fine gravel, readying it for the blocks.

We worked around from both sides, but it was a long, hot day and we eventually just wanted to unload the block and save the rest for another time.

While we waited for another available day to continue working on the block, we started compiling a list of plants we wanted to include in our pest-repelling garden. We knew we wanted low maintenance plants that are perennial in our zone 5 neck of the woods (pun intended).

We learned the best plants for repelling our not-so-friendly tick and mosquito friends are aromatic ones, like kitchen herbs and lavender. Quite fortunately, many of the plants we were looking for to repel the unwanted insects also happen to attract pollinators. We love multi-purpose things—especially plants—so we decided to turn our new planting bed into a pollinator garden with an emphasis on keeping the nuisance pests at bay.

As with everything on the homestead, this new garden will be a work in progress, but our initial plant list included: mint, lemon balm, chive, Greek oregano, lemon thyme, sage, lavender, coneflower, bee balm, and shasta daisy.

At this point, we were nearing the end of June, so we wanted some hardy plants that we could get in the ground to get established. Luckily, our late-in-the season timing resulted in some serious sales, so we saved a lot of money in the end. We planned to heavily mulch and hope it all would pull through its first winter. With the list and layout complete—along with a plethora of expectant plants littering our deck—it was time to get back to building the bed itself.

The next work day consisted of intermittent progress alternated with short, spontaneous rainstorms. We eventually finished leveling the base gravel and setting the first layer of block.

Undeterred, we continued with the capstone layer of block and loosening up the clay-like dirt to better welcome roots.

The next order of business was to fill our new bed with dirt and lots of it. This required multiple car loads of soil, standing in the rain, and pushing a wheelbarrow through wet clay that was so slick the wheels didn’t even turn; that’s not an exaggeration.

The following day, we picked up where we left off; thankfully, conditions were far more favorable. We finished filling the planter with dirt—50 bags of all-purpose top soil and 10 bags of composted manure, 45 cubic feet in all.

We continued by placing the plants in my predetermined order and getting our spacing right. Since we work in healthcare, we can’t go without a little science and math, so we laid a tape measure down longitudinally in the center of the bed to assist in the meticulous placement. We planted 26 plants: 5 lavender, 3 chive, 3 lemon balm, 3 purple coneflower, 3 sage, 3 shasta daisy, 2 bee balm, 2 Greek oregano, and 2 lemon thyme.

Next, we mulched with 18 cubic feet of a natural wood mulch. After which, we watered each plant and called it done.

The reason I’m calling it “finished” is because it’s not actually finished. Once everything dries out, we’ll cut that last capstone and use a heavy-duty landscape block adhesive to help secure everything in place.

We also left two open spots in the front corners of the pollinator garden for some mojito mint. We want the Cuban mint variety, because I make a killer mojito. So, we still need to order some small mojito mint plants online since our local nurseries don’t carry that type. We’ll most likely raise them in pots so we can pull them inside this winter to get them a little hardier before transplanting them to the planting bed next spring.

We hope to get the rest of the driveway rock delivered before fall, but we’ll update this post as the garden takes root, fills in, and blooms! Bye bye ticks and mosquitoes, hello pollinators!

**Update**

Here’s a look at the pollinator bed about one year after planting.