While looking over the various pages on my blog, I realized I forgot to finish the Raised Beds page so I added a few more pictures. Even though some of this can be viewed from the Garden Construction category, there are a few extra pictures that show a few extra steps.
Tag Archives: raised garden bed
End of the week and ready to go
Other than the trellis netting, the bed construction is completely finished. I hooked up the irrigation, installed the grid, and set up the deer net on the remaining three beds. It won’t be long, and I should be eating delicious, ripe vegetables straight from my garden!
Beds - Early April
Finally Time to Plant
I was able to plant one broccoli seedling, and pea and spinach seeds yesterday. I have been trying to get the raised beds finished up the last few days but it has been slow going. I would say two of the five are 100%. The rest still need the drip line installed and the deer netting secured, which I want to finish before I plant in those so I don’t disturb the seedlings or sprouts. It is supposed to rain the next day or so, but perhaps Sunday I can finish.
These two are ready to go.
Almost There…
The beds are almost ready for planting! This weekend I finished buying and mixing the soil, the composition of which is based on the mix in Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I wandered around town the last month or so looking for vermiculite, peat moss, and compost. The difficult part was finding compost from different sources as the big home improvement stores only seem to carry the types based on manure. I ended up using cotton burr, humus and manure, grass, and mushroom based compost found mostly at smaller garden and grocery stores. I might actually plant something this week!
Adding the different materials for the soil mix.
The final mix of vermiculite, peat, and compost.
Raised Bed Construction
I began construction on the raised beds after I finished the compost bin. I was able to get all the boards cut and assembled, and added a groove where the shock cord will rest to hold the deer net tight against the base.
Trying to decide where to place the beds in the yard.
Supplies
Today I ran around all over town to pick up all the remaining supplies for the compost bin and my raised beds. Vermiculite from Earl May, lumber from Menard’s, hardware from Home Depot, and shock chord from Scheels. Now to put it all together.
Another Round of Starts
I started romaine, leaf lettuce, and bell peppers today, just a few of each since I want them staggered so I don’t harvest all at once. I took this week off to get a few projects done around the house, so you should see a bunch more postings in the next few days. I will be building a compost bin and assembling the beds and pest barriers. My kind of fun!