Adventures in Raised Gardening Part 3: Build, Rebuild, Plant, and SNOW?!

So I'm really behind on my garden posts, so this is going to be a long one.

About two weeks ago, after we had all of our supplies in the backyard we actually built the two beds.  It was a much longer process than I thought it would be, but with the hubby's help, we managed to get it finished in one night.  I used a stamper to level the ground and laid the first level of cinder blocks.  Then we started adding the second layer, but had to leave some room to put all the dirt and other soil stuff in the beds.  We learned after the first bed to add the peat moss, compost, and vermiculite before adding all the top soil - basically like this: add half top soil, then all the good stuff, then the rest of the top soil.  Here are the process pictures.

  After we had the beds built and ready to go, we had some rain.  A LOT OF RAIN!  Great news for our the dry land left behind from last year's drought, but not so great for our garden.  We had discussed reinforcing the walls with re-barb but decided to wait and see how things settled.  We should have reinforced first.  Our backyard slopes ever so slightly to the West and so all the rain washed down our little slop and made the farthest wall buckle and start coming apart.  We went to the store and discovered that re-barb is expensive so we opted for wooden stakes instead.  We'll probably have to replace them in a couple of years, but hey, they only cost $7.  My wonderful hubby fixed the walls in the midst of some more drizzle.  We didn't want any more damage before we got around to fixing everything.  Have I mentioned how amazing he is???

 We had been having some cold nights still so I waited until April 29 to plant everything.  I put mostly roots in the bed closet to the house and my tomatoes in the other bed.  Here is how the beds are roughly laid out.

	Better Boy Tomatoes		Pepper
Grape Tomatoes		Celebrity Tomatoes
	Better Boy Tomatoes		Carrots	Eggplant
Grape Tomatoes		Celebrity Tomatoes	Carrots
	Better Boy Tomatoes		Carrots	Eggplant
Better Boy Tomatoes		Celebrity Tomatoes	Carrots

Potatoes	Potatoes	Potatoes	Onions	Summer Squash
Potatoes	Potatoes	Potatoes	Onions
Potatoes	Potatoes	Potatoes	Onions	Summer Squash
Potatoes	Potatoes	Potatoes	Onions
Potatoes	Potatoes	Potatoes	Onions	Summer Squash
Potatoes	Potatoes	Potatoes	Onions

Here are the beds after everything was planted. The bed are the bottom right is where all my roots are.  One thing I did different this year is put mulch on top of everything.  I've read it helps with water retention.  We'll see!

After planting everything on Monday, we had freak weather on Friday and by freak I mean SNOW!!!!  Yes, we had snow on May 3rd!!!!  It was latest snowfall ever recorded in the state of Arkansas. I covered the tomatoes with a sheet and the snow just fell on the sheet. We covered them the next night too because temps were below freezing.  So far, it looks like my tomatoes survived the weather.This is what my beds looked like after the snow.

Here is my precious little girl out in the snow!  She thought it was AWESOME!!!

    Unfortunately, my summer squash has not made it.  I think that has more to do with too much sun than the snow, though.  The snow melted before the day was over and now we are back to nice spring weather.  I'm watering every other day when it doesn't rain and using Miracle Grow once a week to help everything grow big and strong.  I'm so excited to see how everything grows this year with all the changes I've made to my gardening ways.  I'll post updated pictures as everything really starts growing!

Adventures in Raised Gardening: Part 2 - Supplies and Preparation

Ok, so let me just say this project was A LOT bigger than I thought it was going to be.  I think that it is one of the bad things about Pinterest is that you think, "Oh, this will be so easy!  I can do that!"  While yes we were going to do it, the process was much longer drawn out than I thought it would be!

So first, the planning.  The first thing I did was plant some seeds in a seed pod thing that we actually bought last year and didn't ever end up using.  I planted tomatoes, summer squash, lettuce, spinach, and banana peppers.

Then I mapped out where and how big I wanted my gardens to be.  I wanted them away from the house but with plenty of room around them to walk and sit when actually gardening.  I decided on two 4 by 8 foot beds made two cinder blocks high.  Our house faces West and the bed are on the side of the yard that gets the most sunlight for all my full sun plants!  Then we went to our local nursery, and asked lots of questions.  They were so helpful and we left with a list of what we would be back to buy once the yard was more prepared to handle all of the soil we would be needing.

Here was our list of supplies:
72 4x4x8 cinder blocks (I went with the skinnier ones so they would take up less space)
2 cubic yards of top soil
2 bags of peat moss
5 bags of mushroom compost
2 bags vermiculite

We also had to get a wheelbarrow, a flat-head shovel, and a stamper. All told the supplies came to around $300 dollars.  It's a big investment up front, but I figure next year we will just have to add a little compost and we will be good to go.  Here's the hubby pushing the cinder blocks through Lowes.

Next we had a lot of digging to do.  We had to scalp the yard of the grass.  First we measured out the space.  Then I dug out the outline by myself.  then the hubby came in and did the grunt work. I promise, I helped.  He's just not into taking pictures while working!

Now our space is ready for the bricks and soil!!!

Who could forget our little garden baby!  Isn't she the cutest ????

Adventures in Raised Bed Gardening - Part 1

When we moved into our house in August 2009, I was so excited that there was some space right next to the house for a little garden.
My mom had grown tomatoes growing up and it was always fun to go out and pick the sweet red cherry tomatoes and eat them before we could get inside.  I knew that come spring, I wanted to a garden of my own.  With the help from my wonderful hubby we set to work that first spring to create a garden.

The space is about 15 ft by 3 ft. Over the past 3 summers, I've grown strawberries, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, chives, sage, peppers, green beans, cucumbers, cabbage, spinach, and probably something else I'm forgetting.  I never grow very much of any one thing, but it's always part of my spring/summer that I look forward to.

This year, I've been Pinspired to create a raised bed.  My gardening board on Pinterest is a source of great information and fun ideas.  I knew I wanted to do something totally different this year.  I wanted first to move my garden away from the house because I can't get to the backside of it and the weeds always grow back there.  I also really wanted to take a stab at a raised bed. I've seen lots of different versions of raised beds - pre-made kits, fence posts, plain wood, and cinder block. For my garden, this year I've decided to use cinder blocks for my raised beds.  These are some of my pins that pinspired me!

I'm so excited to get started!  I've got my list of supplies, my layout planned, and my seeds planted (indoors)!  I can't wait to show off the process and progress of my new gardens! Our last freeze date is April 15 so this next week, I will be in full garden mode!