Sunday, March 31, 2013

Raised Bed Garden (Part 3)

We are finally to the end of our 3 part raised bed garden series. If you missed the first two steps, you can see them HERE and HERE.  This step includes the dirt we used, the decorative rocks for our pathways and then a little planting!
We even decided to add a big flower pot in the center so that we can plant a flower that goes well with what we will plant to help detour bugs,  I've pinned lots of idea on my garden board on Pinterest.
My honey's boss was kind enough to allow us to get a truck load of very nice dirt from his property, but we new it would need some extra healthy something to go with it, so we used the Sta-Green Garden Soil at Lowe's. We used (8) bags @ $6.17 per bag.
The load of dirt was almost too much for our truck, but driving slow and easy got us back home with our free dirt ready to shovel into our garden beds.
First we poured out 2 bags of garden soil for each bed and then we added the dirt and mixed well.  I mostly just spread the dirt around with a rake while my honey did most of the hard work!  Great job Baby!
Next we poured out our rocks for our pathways.  We went to Walmart and found bags of medium sized rock called Arizona river pebbles.  We used (5) bags @ $3.98 per bag, we could really use a few more bags to be honest.
Next we added mulch to the outside boarders of each bed.  It was also purchased at Walmart, its called Cypress Mulch and we used (4) bags @ $3.28 per bag.  This was basically for decorative purposes, but it also holds moisture and keeps some bugs away.
Since our free dirt was straight from Mother Nature my honey decided it should be sifted of all unwanted plant life or any left overs of plants before we started planting. He made a sifter using 2x4s and hardware cloth. The picture above shows what he would start with and then......
This is what he would ended up with and discard outside the beds back onto our property.  It's still good stuff, he just didn't want it in our gardens.
The next step was to rake the soil until it was all smooth to make sure the bed was free of unwanted bits and parts.
So after pouring, shoveling, mixing and sifting, the final step was raking.  This is how nice and clean the soil looked after all those steps were done. BEAUTIFUL!  You can see the bed in the back is still yet to be done.  It has not been sifted and raked yet.
Trying to figure our how to mark your plants?  This is how my honey marked what we were planting.  He just stapled the plant marker to the bed frame in line with the plant.  I really liked that genius idea!
Here are our tomato plants!  We've got big ones and little ones and I'm hoping they all do well.  My honey is a perfectionist so he put up the marking strings to be sure he planted in a straight line.  I love you Baby!

Raised Bed Garden (Part 1)
Raised Bed Garden (Part 2)

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn
, The Self Sufficient Home Acre , The Chicken Chick
 
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Home Sweet Home
, Keeping it  Simple , The Dedicated House, Skip to my Lou
Married Filing Jointly,  Home Coming
 

Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna, Clean and Scentsible, Lady Behind the CurtainFamily Home and Life,  Ducks n a Row


Thursday
Bloom,  Two Yellow Birds Decor
The Busy B'sThe Taylor House.  52 Mantels,  Domesblissity

Friday 
Tatertots and Jello,  Joyful Stamper,  Craftionary,  Diana Rambles

Saturday
Positively Splendid,  I Heart Nap Time
Or So She Says Your Homebased Mom What's Cooking with Ruthie 

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22 comments:

  1. It's coming along nicely. I like your idea of stapling the tag on. I just used a sharpie and as I was doing it I was thinking there has to be a better way.

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    1. Best not to use treated wood in your garden. A good source is the book, “Square Foot Gardening”.

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  2. That is beautiful and I am thinking about one garden bed like that... have to talk with my hubs about it. I'd love it for herbs right outside my kitchen maybe? Please keep us up-to-date about your garden!
    Jule

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  3. Great pictures and how to...

    Would love you to link this up at our Give Me the Goods linky party:
    http://www.marriedfiling-jointly.com/2013/04/give-me-goods-linky-party-2.html

    ~Chelsea @ Married Filing Jointly

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  4. This looks great! We are doing beds this year as well so I enjoyed reading your process and tips. Thanks for sharing!

    Visiting from Clever Chicks Blog Hop :)
    Tammy
    ourneckofthewoods.net

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  5. Hey there...newest follower! I'm loving the raised beds...can't wait to have my own!

    -andi

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  6. Nice work on the garden beds - it's going to be great all filled in with happy plants!

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  7. Love your beds. I want to invite you to link up at my Wow Us Wednesday link party. It will go live Wed am. I would love to have more post about gardening! http://www.familyhomeandlife.com/

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  8. Great job! I've been thinking about doing this too, but haven't figured out how to keep my dogs out of them... I’d love it if you’d link up to The DIY’ers link party. http://homecomingmn.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-diyers.html

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  9. WOW! I love your raised beds! I am going to be making a few raised beds this summer and I love your ideas! Thanks for sharing I would love for you to stop by ThriftyThursday and share this with us! Hope to see you there! Bonnie

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  10. You're off to such a good start and how great to have the DH be so handy and happy to do the work. But I'm sure it will pay off when those gardeney goodies start to come indoors. Yum! Dropping by from BNOP, Jane

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  11. How fun! Can't wait to see what else you are planting!

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  12. I love it!! I am so jealous that you already have plants in the ground. We've had a very cold spring and we are no where near spring blooms yet. Thanks for sharing this at my Pin Me Linky Party. I hope you come visit & link again.

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  13. Wanted to come by to say hello...it’s so very exciting to see garden posts again, winter has lasted way too long! Just wanted to let you know Fishtail Cottage’s Garden Party will be starting up again in May (Thursday May 2nd) Would love to have you come over and link up again and again! Hope you have a great weekend! xoxo, tracie

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  14. Spring is here! Finally. Some of our neighbors have started getting their supplies ready. In our climate, we still could get snow so they need to wait a bit longer.

    These raised gardens are going to be so pretty. Even veggies can be beautiful.

    Found you on the Pin Me party. (And pinned'!) Would love it if you would stop by my Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop. It is still live now and the next one will be up Tuesday eve at 7pm EDT (a head start for my friends)

    Many blessings,
    Sinea from Ducks ‘n a Row

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  15. Thank you for sharing your post on The Creative HomeAcre Hop!
    I hope to see you back tomorrow for our next hop!
    http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/04/the-creative-homeacre-10.html

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  16. I'm visiting from Sundae Scoop. The beds turned out nicely! We have beds made, but I really want to do what you did with the rock in between. Thanks for the extra inspiration!
    ~Erin @ erins2centz.blogspot.com

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  17. Love the homemade screen idea. We have a lot of rocks here too. I think the kids would have tons of fun with that and it would be helpful, lol.

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  18. Thanks for linking up this post with me. I will be featuring it in an upcoming post! Hope to see you again this Wednesday :)

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  19. I just love the idea of making a sifter using 2x4s and hardware cloth..

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  20. Beautiful... and a ton of work! BUt once those beds are in the hard part is over and then they are fabulous! Have fun with them... Thanks so much for sharing at Super Saturday Show & Tell… I’m SO glad you came to (link) party with me! http://www.whatscookingwithruthie.com Come back again tomorrow to share! xoxo~ Ruthie

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  21. A lot of work but well worth it. I'm wondering if you thought about making the wood any higher so you wouldn't have to bend over as far.
    I have a single raised bed for veggies and I sure wish we had made it a couple of feet high.

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