Making the Garden Beds
Thursday, April 10, 2008
We've been moving forward with our garden building project in fits and starts lately -- more fits than starts, really, given that it's been too wet to do much digging. We're concerned about compacting and damaging the soil if we work on it when it's too wet.A couple of weeks ago, we ordered a delivery of 4 cubic yards of compost/topsoil mix from the local Pogo Organics. It was cheaper to do it that way, rather than buying soil in bags. I also appreciated that we didn't end up with a pile of plastic bags to deal with afterwards. Less waste.
Indoors under the grow lights, my pepper and tomato plants are growing up. I've transplanted some of them twice already into larger pots. When the weather is nice, I'll start setting them outside to harden off. We're still about a month away before it's safe to put them in the ground for good. I can't wait for the day when everything is tucked neatly into a garden bed -- and churning out food!
12 Comments:
Hi Christa, You have certainly been busy readying your new garden beds. Your seedlings are doing great! It'll be fun to watch them taking off once they get planted outdoors. I hope you start having more sunny and warm gardening days.
Hi, I'm hardening-off my seedlings too in these days and I understand you... nurturing newborn plants is exciting, but I can't wait for my first harvest!
Graziana
Glad you're back! That soil mix looks beautiful, and so do your seedlings. My mesclun and lettuce is going great guns now, and the sage is blooming. Now I know what Zane Grey meant when he wrote "Riders of the Purple Sage."
you're really going great guns with your new gardening plans. ... still love the new face of your blog!
Diane
How wonderful to start a new raised bed from scratch. I look forward to seeing all your results. My greenhouse is completely bursting full with plants waiting to go outside!
Christa,
Your vegetable garden is so good to read about. Our patio garden is so small we can only manage pots of tomatoes and herbs and chillies - but we still derive a great deal of pleasure from it.
Your peppers look so happy and healthy! We just put ours in the ground this weekend as it was 85 degrees here! Yikes. We're hoping that means the end of the frost too.
great looking plants, Christa
Oh, those are some fat and happy seedlings! And those luscious beds!! I just made a raised bed and am very ready to plant outdoors, too. Can you cobble together a coldframe? I'm hoping some old windows will allow me to grow outdoors starting in April.
Quick tips.. I just cruised through via a google search for sod cutter of all things, neat blog!
.. not sure if your concerned about such things, but having been doing something similar looking.. wood enclosed raised beds are really great but only last a couple of seasons, the labor and costs of replacing them and re-moving the soil and re-establishing soil life can get old fast, I stapled 6 mil painters plastic to the interior of mine and that seems to have stopped deterioration almost completely, additionally, I put a quick coat of paint to the exteriors and put a 2x4 "cap" on the tops (makes it nicer to sit on too) these can be done anytime, but the visqueen is easier to put in before all that soil ;)
It's much better to order loose compost but for a large area I always underestimate hideously how much I'm going to need. The new garden looks great - I'm excited to see how you get on in your first season.
i can't believe how happy your seedlings look... mine are spindly half dead things. I've obviously got more refinement to do with my technique.
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