First Raised Bed of the Season

I know it's a little late getting my raised beds planted, but this is my first year. My plan was to have six raised beds 4x8 ft long and 20 inches deep built. I found some great videos on how to build raised beds on youtube by The Garden Girl/Patti Moreno. I had my husband watch the videos and then very nicely asked if he would make them for me. He started out by making 2 beds. He bought 12 2x8x10 boards, 2 2x2x8 (for reinforcement inside the box), and a box of 3 1/2 in deck screws. He and the kids were able to construct them pretty quickly in one evening. He did cuss a bit about a few warped boards, so look for the straightest boards you can buy! We placed them in our backyard so we could look at them from our kitchen window up above.

I thought I'd get these filled in no time! I started with a layer of horse manure, then shredded paper, old produce from the grocery store, straw, more manure and then topsoil and compost. 20 inches tall doesn't seem like much until you are trying to fill it. Once my husband saw how much it took to fill it, he wanted to compromise and only make two more beds and do two next year. I already have my garden graphed out, so I went for 4 more beds 10 inches deep. He doesn't have to know now, that we'll add another 10 inches next summer.

Aren't these beds lovely? I didn't put a weed barrier on the bottom for two reasons: I thought the beds are deep enough and I want the worms to be able to get into my beds. It's their garden too and I need their help.

This is a picture from the deck on the back of our house overlooking the gardens and pond. Myron built the arbor and swing and we love sitting there watching the wildlife and fish. We like to build a small fire pit close by to enjoy smore's in the evening.

Here's Trooper. He LOVE's to garden. As you can see, I marked off one foot sections with string for square foot gardening. It really does make it so much easier to plant.

This is my bricked in garden that I use for herbs, cut flowers and whatever else I need to put over there.

This year I'm trying potatoes in a bag and also cages. We'll see which they prefer.

Here you can see my six beds, not all quite ready. Ty and I filled two more of the smaller beds last night. We carried 40 40lbs bags of topsoil and compost. They didn't quite finish off the two beds. I think 25 bags per bed will do it. I keep telling Jon that next year will be much easier. We'll start making our own compost this year. So moving forward we should be pretty self-sufficient.

This year I've decided to purchase only heirloom seeds. I'll see how they grow this year and start collecting my own seeds. It's not as easy as I thought, so I'll start with baby steps. The first bed is filled with transplants I started in my grow room. The lettuce looks pretty good. We've got Simpson, mascara and lollo lettuce, brussell sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower planted.