Eventually, we will be adding a brick or stone facade to these raised beds. For now, we are on a plywood budget. Here are some photos of our weekend's main project. The main reason for these beds is that this is the only area in our back yard that has enough sun to grow veggies. The previous owner had built up huge hills of dirt that rested against the house. It wasn't that big of a deal until we re-did the siding. Then the dirt hills had to go. I really wanted a place to grow a small garden, so this is the solution we came up with. We are hoping to landscape the back yard soon, and are looking for used bricks and stone to cut down on costs and as a bonus to save landfill space. Michael says the plywood won't last long, and I know he's right. I'm praying that God will provide stone or brick this summer.
We also planted our peas - a first for me. I always forget that I want peas until I'm planting the other things. This year, I remembered. Aaron is the perfect age for helping. He was SO happy to plant the peas. He actually wanted to plant everything - but of course it's not time for that. It's pretty much impossible to explain the concept of six weeks passing first. He is still working on waiting in general, so 6 weeks seems like next year, I'm sure.
I can't wait until the grass in the above pictures turns from nasty to green, and our back yard won't look so forlorn. The hastas are peeking their tips up out front, as well as the tulips and daffodils. The mini irisis donated by the neighbors are so close to blooming. Another week of sun and I'm sure they will show their purple selves.
What are you working on at your house this weekend?
6 comments:
the raised bed looks great! it will be so nice to have your own home grown produce.. yummy!! and no project yet--but in just a couple of weeks it will be deck building time! yipee!!
We'll be doing a raised bed this year too! Our yard has HORRID soil so our cheap way to do a garden is a raised bed. And I'm sure we'll be joining you on the plywood (or maybe cheap pine). That's all in future planning mode though. All we did this weekend was plant a few tiny blue hyancinths. We have irises this year too - can't wait to see what color they are!
What else are you planting besides peas?
Al, we are planning for peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and winter squash along with our peas. (we have 2 beds, one is 4 x 8 and the other is 4 x 6 so that is all we have room for. But YUM!
Aaron is going to have so much fun gardening I see his joy all ready.
The beds look great.
We started with raising the dirt high like a hill then moved to old railroad ties (then we heard this wasn't good because of the poisionous chemical used in preserving ties)
Then we moved to ceader but preserved it with a healthy sealer.
Finally after 30 years of marriage we are moving to brick.
You will love it and so will Aaron. When we lived in a trailer and Lissa wasn't born yet I would find Carmen in the backyard eating cherry tomatoes,one after another dripping down her front she loved the garden.
She lives in NY no yard but soon she's moving to Brooklynn and has a patio so she will be growing things in pots on the patio. I sent her cherry tomatoes, and potting soil in the mail the other day.
You can see what we are doing in our garden at:
http://gardeninginlewisburg.blogspot.com/
We are always working in the garden because we have an acre of land and the girls are grown and have their own families now.
I love to hear what people are doing in their gardens no matter how small.
Uh...we started reading a book on square foot gardening. :^) We've always had a traditional garden in the back but the tiller is dying ($$$) and some crops weren't thriving back there anyway. Our side yard does not have good soil since it was all bulldozed up to build the yard up where the house was built (in the 1950's). So raised beds sound like our solution. I will soon be traveling to Illinois to bring back gardening bounty from my parent's greenhouse in Illinois :^) Their season is full month ahead of ours in Michigan's. Sigh.
Cindy B.
p.s. We've heard cedar lasts at least ten years...we haven't decided yet.
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