Simple Summer Garden

Since we have twins on the way, we decided to keep it simple in the garden this year.  First, Seth weeded the beds and then he mixed in some garden soil with fertilizer.  We opted to stick mostly with what some might call a salsa garden (or maybe an Italian-themed garden).

One exception to that theme is our mint.  It came back with a vengeance in our front herb bed.

We literally did nothing and look at it!  I'm glad we have it in a raised bed because I'm pretty sure it would have taken over the entire yard.

I'm looking forward to some mint iced tea and mojitos.

In the other herb bed, we decided to stick with cilantro.  We will have to do a better job of harvesting it consistently to keep it from going to seed like last year.

It always looks really sad when you first plant it.  Don't worry - it has since perked back up.

This year the left bed is our "pepper bed".

In the back, we planted two bell peppers, a chili pepper, and some extremely hot pepper (I forgot the name) that Seth wanted to try.  The plant in the left foreground in the photo above is an eggplant and we also stuck our basil in this bed (across from the eggplant above).

On the right side, we were surprised to see multiple onions coming up this Spring.  Again, we did nothing for them.  They must be onions that didn't germinate last year for whatever reason.  I didn't realize they could survive freezing temperatures but they look great so far.

In front of the onions, we planted four tomato plants.

We chose two cherry tomatoes, one large red slicing tomato, and a purple heirloom tomato.

We set up the soaker hose system like last year and are hopeful that we will have better success.  I'll let you know what the results are.  

PVC Pipe Garden Markers

I made some garden markers for our new raised beds out of metal BBQ skewers and PVC pipe.

I found these skewers in the dollar section at Target and snatched them up.  You need one skewer for each garden marker.

I also purchased some 1/2" diameter PVC pipe, cut it into 5" pieces with a hacksaw, and spray painted them with chalkboard paint.

I probably should have used a larger piece of cardboard to catch the overspray.  Whoops.

I used a chalkboard marker to write the names of our herbs and veggies onto the PVC pipe pieces after they dried, and then I slid them through the circular opening in the skewers.

The PVC pipe was slightly larger in diameter than the opening in the skewer so I used some pliers to pull the skewer open slightly before sliding the PVC pipe inside.

Do you see how much our veggies have grown?

I was a bit worried about the chalkboard marker getting rinsed off in the rain, but so far it hasn't been a problem.  Maybe the sun baked the labels on.

This was an easy, inexpensive project that adds a nice custom touch to our garden.

Dirt & Veggies & Herbs, Oh my!

Where were we?  Oh, yes.  We built our DIY raised garden beds and attached some galvanized hardware cloth to the bottom to create a mole barrier.  After that, it was time for dirt.

It took almost two "scoopfuls" (two truckloads) of dirt from a local nursery.  The dirt is a special combination of topsoil, compost, and sand that they had available for gardening.

Seth shoveled it from the bed of the truck into the two raised beds (and later the herb beds) and I used a hoe to spread it around.  I believe it was close to 90 degrees that day and we were sweaty.  (Just painting a realistic picture for you.)

Next, we laid out our soaker hoses and used some landscape fabric pins to help hold it in place.

Hehe...Amos looks tiny next to the huge bed.

What I dislike most about gardening and adding new plants to our landscape is watering them. Not the act of watering itself, but the fact that I get eaten alive by mosquitoes while doing it.  They are horrible in our yard.  In short, our neighbors are breeding mosquitoes due to a grading issue in their backyard.  So in order to minimize the amount of time that mosquitoes are feasting on my flesh, we decided to utilize a soaker hose system in the garden.

It's definitely not the prettiest set up.  The closest spigot is located inside the carport near the back door so we had to run a hose through the carport and across the backyard.  We then attached a splitter, two short hoses (the shortest ones we could find at Lowe's), and the two soaker hoses.  

It may be ugly but it's definitely convenient.  And I have avoided West Nile virus thus far.

Alright...onto the fun part.  Planting some veggies!

We first laid out our plant choices to determine if we needed to rearrange the soaker hose, and then we started digging in the dirt.  Soon we had all of our plants in place.

The photo above shows our left bed.  It contains tomatoes and peppers.

red slicing tomato

red striped heirloom tomato

green striped heirloom tomato

sweet 100 cherry tomato

sweet banana pepper 

bell pepper (not sure if it's going to be red or green) 

cayenne pepper

poblano pepper

The right bed contains onions, yellow squash, zucchini, and okra.

red, white, and yellow onions

 yellow squash

zucchini squash

okra

As I mentioned in my previous post, we also decided to build a couple of smaller herb beds.  

They are 2 foot x 2 foot and constructed the exact same way as the larger veggie beds.  The front herb bed contains mint and basil.

mint

greek basil

thai basil

The back herb bed contains two cilantro plants.  Because we LOVE cilantro.  And because, for some reason, it tends to be out of stock at our grocery store almost every other week.

cilantro

I'm planning to "pretty it up" by defining the garden area and by adding some garden markers. Stay tuned.  Have a great weekend!

DIY Raised Garden Beds

Our raised garden beds are complete and full of veggies!  I'm so excited.  They are like new additions to the family.  Seth and I are constantly checking on them - before work, after work, after dinner, before bed...you get the idea.  We can't wait until they grow up and start producing fresh food for us.

Before constructing our raised beds, I searched the internet for tutorials.  There are about a million of them.  I made mental notes of the designs that I liked and came up with a no frills plan that would work for us.  First, we decided how large (4 feet wide x 8 feet long) and how deep (approximately 1 foot) we wanted our beds.  To make assembly easier and to add some support, we chose to use square posts at the corners.

Supplies (per bed):

• One 4x4x6 - ~$8 (we got our wood for free from Seth's father)
• Six 2x6x8s - ~$34 (free for us)
• 3-inch exterior wood screws - ~$12  (we used approx 64 of these)
• Galvanized hardware cloth - ~$46 (optional; we bought this roll which is enough for two beds)

       TOTAL:  ~$54 per bed  ($77 per bed with poultry netting)

Cut list:

• 4 - 4x4s @ 11" (corner posts)
• 4 - 2x6s @ 48" (end panels)
• 4 - 2x6s @ 96" (side panels; no cutting needed if you bought 8ft boards)

Tools:

• Chop saw or circular saw
• Drill
• Staple gun (if using hardware cloth)
• Wire cutters (if using hardware cloth)

Assembly:

     1.  Use wood screws to attach two 2x6x8s to two of your 4x4 pieces (as shown below) to form one side of the bed.

     2.  Repeat step 1 to form the other side of the bed.

     3.  Use wood screws to attach your 2x6x4 pieces to either end of the bed

     4.  Use a staple gun to attach pieces of hardware cloth to the bottom of the beds to keep the moles out (optional)

     5.  Flip your bed over and admire your handy work.

Some additional info:

• We used untreated poplar to make our beds (again, it was free) so I'm not sure how long they'll hold up compared to pressure treated wood or cedar but it was worth the trade off to us.
• Using pressure treated wood for a raised bed is considered to be safe.  Studies from the Texas A&M Ag Extension have shown that the chemicals used to treat the wood do not leach into the soil in any significant amount.  And if you're worried about arsenic - it has not been used to treat wood in over 10 years.
• When using pressure treated wood you should use galvanized, polymer coated, or stainless steel exterior wood screws to avoid corrosion.
• Cedar is a great wood option if you can afford it.
• If you want to reduce the cost when making your bed, make it only 6" deep instead of 12" and/or don't use the square corner posts.  The approximate cost for a 6" deep bed would then be ~$25 (more if using the poultry netting).

This is a fairly easy, inexpensive DIY project.  We made two of the 4 foot x 8 foot beds for veggies and then decided to make two 2 foot x 2 foot beds for herbs (I'll reveal those in a later post).

Next up I'll share pics of filling them with dirt and veggies and installing our soaker hose system!