Building a Raised Bed

I wouldn't call myself a "tree-hugger," but I do like to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Wasting anything just kills me.  If I can use it for something, I try to.

Although our garden was fruitful last year, I think that it would do much better with less rocky soil.  Raised beds seemed like a great option- easier to care for, better soil, and I thought they would bring some order to my garden.  I know that gardens aren't neat and orderly things, but I like to have structure when I can.  I am an ISTJ afterall.

Being an ISTJ also means that I am fiscally conservative.  So I don't want to pour a ton of money into building beds.  Which is why I was thrilled to see these boards that needed to come down from our hallway ceiling.  Remember them?

Aren't they beautiful?  And just perfect for building a garden bed.

So I started with this pile of wood.

Since it was nice outside, I sat out there to remove all of those nails and staples.    I didn't take a picture of all of that stuff that I took out, but it filled a Cool Whip container about halfway.  That's a lot of nails and staples.

So then I had this nice, neat pile of wood.

(Ok, now that I see the picture, not just its thumbnail, I realize that it is not the nice pile of wood yet--the nails are removed, but the staples are not.  Please use your imagination here and pretend there are no staples.  A mind is a terrible thing to waste.  Or something.)

I rolled the lawn mower out to the garden so that I could plan and put the beds a lawn mower width apart so I (ok, Tim) can easily mow between them.

In case you are wondering, those tall dead plants were the jalapeños from last year.   See that stake by the wheel of the mower?  That was the part of the story where Stephanie thought she could do it herself and tried to drive the stake into the group with the mini-sledge hammer.  And kept (accidentally) kept hitting herself with the mini sledge.  So she called in the big guns to help her do the building.

Is he good or what?  I didn't take any pictures for the rest of the construction, but it was based off of this tutorial from my hero, PW.  If its ok for Pioneer Woman to ask for help, its ok for me.

And here it is!

Now for filling that bed.  I could go out and buy a bunch of black dirt... but that's expensive.  Instead, I decided to pretty much empty my compost pin into the bed and have extremely rich soil... I hope it doesn't burn my plants.

I got this whole raised bed idea from Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail.  I highly recommend that you get the book if you are intersted in growing food on a small scale.  And when you do and you read the tutorial on building your own raised beds, you will realize how awful I am at following instructions.  I was supposed to do this about 6 months ago, but I just got around to it.  I know, I know.  I procrastinate.  Life happens.  Luckily, its God who grows things.

To prevent grass and weeds (which were already growing in the garden area) from infesting my bed, Gayla says to lay down a thick layer (about 10 sheets) of newspaper to smother the sod. 

I didn't have a lot of newspaper sitting around, since we faithfully recycle them, but I took what I had-- along with the hose-- out back to the garden.  Gayla says to get the paper wet so it doesn't blow all over the place.  She's right.

Cute rainboots are always helpful.  Oh yeah, and grab a cute dog to help out, too.  I chose this one.

I don't know if I really got it 10 sheets thick (I can't count) but I did the best I could.  And I tried to build it up the sides a little to  keep out the weeds around the edges.  I didn't have as many papers or as good of coverage as I would have liked, but I did the best I could.

Then I got out the wheel barrow and started hauling compost.  My compost wasn't as composty as I would like, but I hope it will finish breaking down in the bed.

Here we are part way.

And then I topped it off and gave it all a good soak with the hose.

Yummy!  Now, if it would just warm up enough to put my plants out...