Yes, it's really true! I've been telling you about our raised bed garden for months and I'm FINALLY going to reveal the four bee-u-tee ful raised beds Mr. Fanatic made for me several months ago.
I hope you have a comfy place to sit because I have A LOT to show you!
Here's a quick glimpse of what's currently growing...Romaine lettuce.
Isn't it gorgeous?
The raised bed project has been a long time in the making. Last year Mr. Fanatic made me four terraced beds on the South side of our house. After a successful year of gardening in them, we started planning an expansion of gardening space. Here what was planned...
Here is a before photo of the North side of the yard looking into our backyard.. Our lot has very little sun because of all the woods we have. We have two strips of on the lot where we get the 6+ hours of sun needed to grow most veggies.
On the North side of the yard (left side of the photo), there were 3 very large Leyland Cypress trees that we had to take out. The center tree had caught something and was dying and we figured we'd have all three trees removed to make room for our new North Garden. I had a difficult time with taking them down since it afforded us so much privacy, but it was only a matter of time before the other trees caught whatever the middle tree had.
This is another before photo. You can see one of the Leyland Cypress trees on the far left of the photo. The 9 little plants in front of the pot are the potato plants we grew last year.
Here's how the North side of the yard looked after the Leylands were taken out. The 4 large shrubs are on our neighbor's property. Pretty dismal looking at this point, but I had a vision.
In January, Mr. Fanatic built 4 raised beds out of 2 x 8's. Each bed is apx. 4 feet by 10 feet. (The ends are 4 ft wide and the length is 10 ft + the width of the ends)
Many people make them out of cedar, but that wood is so expensive and this wood should last several years. We finished the outside with a sealing stain, but the inside was finished with a non-toxic stain made from whey.
The most difficult part of this project was terracing the slope...which meant digging out the dirt. I did this by myself, by hand, with a shovel.
Wire "cloth" was attached to the bottom of the boxes so that critters wouldn't tunnel under the boxes and get our veggies.
At this point, we were filling the boxes with dirt. Mr. Fanatic filled them with several trailer's full of dirt.
Here all the raised beds are filled with dirt and mulch we had just put down the hardwood mulch around the beds. The little dark rows on the right front bed mark where I planted carrot seeds.
Here's the North side of our yard looking into the backyard. Disregard the grass line. I hadn't dug the trench yet! Still working on it, but it's almost done as I write this! :)
I planted two shrubs which will grow quickly and keep the garden from view from the front yard.
Looking toward the front yard.
Here's a photo of the raised beds from our deck.
This photo was taken about 3 weeks ago; everything has grown since then.
Potatoes are growing tall. The tall ones were planted several weeks ahead of the others.
The sugar snap peas are now well past the second rung on the trellis. The purple cabbage haven't grown much.
As potatoes grow taller, more dirt has to be added to cover the base of the plant so the potatoes growing under the dirt don't see sunlight, otherwise they will turn green.
This is where my herb garden will be. The 3 plants are basil.
I planted oregano seeds to the left of the gold pot and mint on the right in the pot. Evidently, mint will take over if you let it. I read somewhere on the internet that planting it in a sunken pot will keep it from spreading too much. I've also planted parsley to the right of the pot since this photo was taken.
Five strawberry plants have found a temporary home in one of the terra cotta pots. I'm hoping Mr. Fanatic will have some time soon to build a vertical container for them.
For those who don't remember the raised beds Mr. Fanatic built last year on the South side of the house... here they are.
Mr. Fanatic installed a drip irrigation system for these beds. He's also planning to install one in the North garden raised beds, as well.
There you have it...hope you enjoyed your tour of our expanded raised bed vegetable garden. This is where you'll find me most days when the weather is good.
I just love to watch the plants grow!
If you would like to see how Mr. F. made the terraced raised beds last year, you can see the post HERE.
Are you planting any veggies this year?
Pam
joining: