March 13: The making of a new garden bed
We decided this year to go for a raised bed garden. There were several factors motivating us to raise the garden a foot off the ground this year.
- DOGS. While a 3ft chicken wire fence will keep most bunnies out, it will not keep out our two lovely dogs, Luna and Davey. Despite our best training efforts to teach them that the garden is off limits, they still ran through it daily, taking no effort to watch their step. One morning last summer I was devastated when I looked out the window to find that our zucchini and bean plants had been crushed under their paws. They had used the garden as a place to have their morning wrestling match. Thankfully we were able to save some of the plants, but we are hoping to avoid such an occurrence from happening this year by keeping the dogs (and other critters) out of our garden!
- WEEDS. I've spent countless hours in the past weeding our garden. Weeds are ugly and time consuming, not to mention harmful to plants you do want in your garden. We are hopeful that raising the beds up will keep the weeds out!
- AESTHETICS. We are looking forward to having a garden that looks nice during the winter months, too.
The day started with the delivery of lumber (untreated cedar), pea gravel, and soil. A lot of it.
Setting out the lumber (that dirt patch was last year's garden).
Laying down the weed block.
The form is finished...now let's add dirt.
The dogs...overseeing the effort.
I added a few concrete pavers for a walkway that will lead to our patio.
Kris is thrilled to be hauling soil on his day off...can you tell?
Finished!
We lined the garden with limestone rocks - some of which were dug up while our patio was put in, and others that we "harvested" from construction sites in the area. I am pleased with the results...now we need to get our spring veggies in!March 18, 2009: The first planting
I stumbled upon the Square Foot Gardening method during one of my garden research sessions on the web. It seemed like a perfect fit for our garden. Since we had already built the garden and filled it with dirt, we couldn't use the "Mel's Mix" soil that the method calls for. We're hoping that our topsoil/compost/sand mix will work out just as well...only time will tell!
- 1 square of wheat grass (for juicing)
- 2 squares (1 plant each) of collard greens
- 2 squares (1 plant each) of rainbow swiss chard
- 2 squares (9 plants each) of spinach
- 4 squares (16 plants each) of beets
- 8 squares (9 plants each) of different lettuces
- 6 squares (16 plants each) of red, yellow, and green onions.
Protecting the Garden
After finding big paw prints in the garden (thanks to our canine friends), we realized that the garden needed some type of fence to keep the dogs out. We really wanted to avoid using chicken wire - it looks awful and is difficult to work with. Kris devised a way to run wires around the garden, which thankfully kept the dogs from using the garden as a short cut through the yard. It looks nice, we will still be able to reach our hands through and get to the plants, but it will hopefully keep the unwanted critters out.
closeup of the fence
the whole garden
The bird bath was a gift from my grandmother.
We quickly discovered that the few inches of space on the lower portion of the "fence" around the garden was plenty of room for rabbits (even big ones) to enter our garden and munch on our onions and greens.
On a trip to the hardware store I found a roll of plastic chicken wire fencing. I attached it to the top wire with garden twist ties and then we drilled holes into the cedar boards to attach the netting to below. It's a little less clean looking than the wire-only fence, and it's a little bit more hassle to get our hands in the garden, but it is best solution we could come up with. And it's nice having the peace of mind knowing our garden is now well protected.
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