One of the things that we allocated some tax return money to is getting some garden boxes going at this house. It's not cheap to start out, but we were really blessed to used some recycled wood we found at ReStore. That place is GREAT, Mr. Right and I go a couple of times a month and always come out with something, really, for pennies on the dollar. The other day I was hanging laundry out and got a little peak of my hard working honey from my laundry room window. I was so excited that he was working on my garden boxes!
We decided to start with 4 - 4 foot by 4 foot boxes.
I went to three different garden centers and farm stores on Sunday to find what I needed to start the boxes, according to Mel. I still only have half the vermiculite (that's the big bag in the top picture). I was sick to have to buy compost as my compost pile is still not doing anything. I've been faithfully turning it for weeks and.... nothing. I've had it going since last year and I really hoped it would be ready by now. While I was at the garden center I bought some "compost starter" that is pure nitrogen. I put the whole box in and added a bit more water. Maybe someday this stuff will decompose. But I digress.
Here are my finished boxes up against the side of the house. As soon as I have cardboard for the bottom, I will get them started. I'm struggling with exactly where to put them. The front yard where they will be much less attractive but have lots of sun or the more practical backyard where there will be less sun when the trees get all of their leaves?I'll report back on that. Big Sissy was busy all day working on priming her bathroom as this is our second day preparing her bedroom for Passover, but I'll let you read about that over on her blog. I'm sure she'll be posting soon.
4 comments:
Oh, Jennifer, I wish I had known you were going to make your own raised beds. I would have commended that you do long and narrow. I did two 3 by 8's and two 2 by 8's. The two by eights were easier to work with. It is hard to maintain the center of the three by eights. Make sure you put plants that need little tending in the center. Vermiculite is the hardest thing to find, we were only able to find about half of what we needed too. We did find some bigger bags this year at McDaniels. We might be putting in 2 more 2 by 8's this year and adding pots for our herbs, tomatoes and potatoes.
I'd really like to do a backyard garden this year too. Of course I've said that every spring for the past three years, so we'll see if I actually make it happen this time. :)
Happy gardening! Your boxes look great. I think I would go with the backyard. :)
How exciting! Our very first (second, third & fourth too) garden was a Sq Ft Garden. It did SOOO well and gave us the boost to become gardeners! Over time we have tweaked things to work for "us" and this year are going with a modified Sq. Ft/Lasagne garden.
Have fun with it! Gardening is so gratifying :)
We are just getting our first garden started. Jim and Rebekah cleaned out that area of the yard and they laid out the beds. We're looking forward to home grown produce.
Post a Comment