Here is my latest time suck, but in a GOOD way! I am soooo excited for my new garden beds. I used to have garden beds like this, at my old house, and they were fabulous! They are easy to work and the soil is so much nicer for growing my crops. Notice my lovely (NOT!) glasses, had to wear these darn things for over 2 weeks, while the ulcers on my eyes were healing up. Couldn't scrapbook much with the eye problems, but I was able to help working on my new garden beds.
We started by rototilling the entire garden area, then rolling out black weed paper to cover the entire area. We settled on 3 raised beds, measuring 4 ft x 8 ft each. We used 2x6's and made 2 layers - so the entire bed is 12 inches in height.
Once we got the frames built, we pounded stakes into the ground and attached the frames to the stakes, to hold the beds in place. Then we got a 'vegetable' mix of soil from the local composting place for the base of the beds. We left a few inches on top of each bed, where I added in (asbestos free) vermiculite and another mix of compost that included some peat moss.
I had taken a class on "Square Foot Gardening" and felt this was right up my alley. It is based on a book (All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!by Mel Bartholomew). So I used string and ran it from side to side, and end to end of each bed, at 1 foot marks. Based on this theory - you plant a certain number of each plant in each square based on the size each plant will eventually grow. We had already had chives from our previous garden that we transplanted into 3 of the sections in one of the new beds. Next we built some trellis's, one for each bed. I am going to try and 'teach' my zucchini to grow up the trellis this year, sounds like that is what folks do, so I will give it a try. We used PVC pipe and some vinyl fencing materials to create the trellis and then attached to the beds using metal clips.
Thanks for checking out my garden project! Have a great day!!
No comments:
Post a Comment