Building my Dream Raised-Bed Garden!

Almost 2 years ago we bought a small home with a big yard in our hometown and while I had big dreams for full property transformation, with my husband and I both working full time and spending many weekends out fishing, hiking, there hasn’t been much time left over for it. Slowly and steadily last year I built some rudimentary garden beds using repurposed wood boards to plant just 4 tomato plants. As I wasn’t yet sure this would be the permanent spot for the garden, I didn’t put too much into it. But now after a year of learning how plants act in this new space, its time to get serious!

This year I’m tearing away the old setup and putting more time and effort into a raised bed garden built to last. Here’s what I’m up to:

The side of the yard I’m working in is roughly 12ft by 50+ft so there’s plenty of space to work with but since there’s little time left before most crops should be planted, I’m running out of time.  Its southwest facing but its right between our house and the neighbor’s fence, which I was surprised to find last year didn’t make a huge negative impact. I assumed that since the hot afternoon sun would be lost behind the shadow of the fence that I’d see some loss in the size of my harvests but not only did that not occur, but delicate herbs I’d had trouble with in the past flourished, saved from the afternoon scorch during heat wave season. It will work!

A good plan of attack means having a good plan, here’s mine, I want 3 big, raised garden beds for tomatoes, peppers, greens, herbs and more. Then for perennials I’m using large black grow pots from a local nursery, they're are called 24” pots. Th reasons I’m keeping the perennials in pots is 1. This is not our forever home and I don't want to lower the property value by putting large permanent plant installs in, and 2. Some plants, like blueberry, enjoy acidic soil, so it’s easier to give them an acid soil pot instead of dedicating a whole garden bed to them permanently. One pot already has blueberry shrubs, 3 varietals for top pollination, I have berries to harvest next month! Another has 2 plants, a shrub raspberry called ‘Shortcake’ and a shrub Blackberry called ‘Baby Cakes’. Since these 2 plants typically grow in vigorous vines, these new shrub varietals on the market are perfect for home gardeners who don’t want to commit to setting up a trellis structure. For the third pot, well, I don’t know yet! I’m thinking something flowering. 😊

Our senior-rabbit 'Peter's cage sits center of the garden, poised to enjoys its excess!

Essentially, my tasks are as follows, section by section, I’m clearing the land with a weed eater and hoe, then laying down cardboard or multiple layers of store-bough weed-block cloth. Over top of that comes much. Lots of it! So far I’ve been purchasing it by the bag, but I did recently hear from a local that they used chipdrop.com, a service where arborists can drop you their wood chips, free of charge, although they do recommend leaving a $20 donation, which I did when I recently put in my request. There's no guarantee on how long it’ll be before a truckload chooses to dump in my driveway. In the meantime, I’m spreading the mulch super sparingly, even allowing for sections of the black weed-cloth to peek through. When the drop happens, ill go back over it with several inches of chips.

Sweet Alyssum is a must-have in the tomato/pepper bed!

While that transformation is happening, I’m building new garden beds, 2 of which are already built and filled with soil recovered from last year’s beds mixed with fresh bags of soil and manure. I have 1 last box to build and fill in. The boards are repurposed to old cement molds from a local sidewalk project and simply nailed together by my husband.

Then when they’re all done and I have the full area covered with mulch, I plan to make a garden fence along the south to add some privacy too.

Using chicken-wire to keep stray cats from digging in the seedlings!

As for the contents of the garden beds for this spring, I’ve dedicated the northern bed to mostly tomatoes and peppers, the center bed, which is easily viewed from my kitchen window to leafy greens and carrots. And the southern bed, soon to be built, to sunflowers and a dwarf sweet corn, those 2 tall items will add privacy to the south as well. Of course, throughout all new beds I'm tucking in flower seeds, herbs and as always, trying new things!

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