3.24.2010

Raised Veggie Bed

Over the weekend we had the most gorgeous weather. The nice weather means we can start cutting wood outside again and check-off more projects on our to-do list.

We have a little strip of flower bed that I use to plant vegetables. Our neighbor loved the idea so much that he added a vegetable bed on the other side of the fence next to ours. But...our neighbor didn't really take care of his side last season and I spent all of my time weeding my veggie bed from his invasive weeds.

So, I needed a raised bed to control weeds and try to get the soil as organic as possible.

Here's the "before" vegetable bed. The dude ripped out the old wood border.

We are also dog sitting, Dasher, right now. He provided valuable advice on this project.


The dude built two boxes to stack on top of each other out of cedar. He mentioned that he felt like he was building his own coffin. Umm.



Dasher was so "over it" by the second level of the box.




Garden fabric was added as well as some supports on the inside.


A few planks were cut in half to create the top cap.

We then sifted a lot of dirt from our compost and added a few bags of organic soil. The dude filled the screw holes with wood filler, added a center brace, and later sanded it all down.



The next day, I started to take care of the yucky rusting fence with a can of leaky spray paint in a satin black finish. I still need to finish it up.

Eventually, we are planning on building another box that runs perpendicular to the current box. But, first I need to move the small rosemary bush and some other plants around. I can't wait to start planting!

2 comments:

  1. I was loving the weather so much this weekend that I had to start planting my vegetables. I used a bunch of old flower pots and yogurt containers and I'll transplant them when the weather gets warm. We'll see if it works out or if I planted too soon. Your cedar box is beautiful. Now I want to do something like that, but my dude will never do it. It's hard enough to get him to watch the kid while I do yardwork. What will you plant? So far, I've planted radishes, peppers, green beans, squash and basil. *Christina Z

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Christina I'll send Steve over to build you a box! I'm hoping to try to do plant some cold weather veggies (lettuce, ect) first and then do tomatoes, green beans, peppers.

    ReplyDelete