Our Garden History

Well, I've decided that instead of keeping my large gardening notebook, I'll try keeping my gardening records on a blog. This will allow me to have access no matter where I am and also allow me to post pictures for future reference. We'll see how it goes!!

Some background on our gardening adventure:
We began raised bed gardening 2 years ago during the spring of 2010. We built 2 raised beds, each 4' x 16'. They did OK, but the distance from the house did 2 things: made watering difficult (over 80 ft. to the closest water spigot) and the squirrels and dogs loved to "visit" the beds. Talking to one of my coworkers (RIP, Connie) about our gardening adventures, she suggested I read about Square Foot Gardening and Mel Bartholemew. Walking into Lowes one morning in the winter of 2011 and seeing his book was like Connie telling me, "Hey, girl! Here it is!! The book I told you about!" I bought it on the spot and devoured it.

By February, we had decided to bite the bullet and move both of our raised beds between the back deck and the water spigot, fencing them in to keep my son's 1 year old black lab out of the garden beds. At the same time, we decided to create more of a "Mel's Mix" with vermiculite, compost & peat moss. When we originally built our beds, we filled them with Miracle Grow Garden Soil, which already contained compost & peat moss. We simply added more compost & vermiculite to lighten the soil.

 This is the garden on March 4, 2012, just after we completed the fence and added the garden shed. In the bed to the left, you can see the lettuce, cabbage & cauliflower. Also planted in this bed is spinach and romaine lettuce.

Cauliflower & Cabbage

Spinach sprouts & a puppy nose!

Romaine lettuce

By the middle of March, we had the garden fenced in, added a 4' x 4' Rubbermaid garden shed, and had completely planted both beds. Even the lettuce we had transplanted from the original beds was thriving.  However, by May we decided to expand- the best Mother's Day gift I have probably ever received. We almost doubled the size of the fenced enclosure and added our outside table and chairs in to the area.

Building the potting bench.

Organized and ready to go!!