Garden progress

Oooooh my aching back, arms, legs.. Oh heck you name it!  Man I never realized a raised bed garden would be so much work!  Ugh.  We started by putting the beds together and carrying them over to the spot I want them.  We plan to put 16 x 16 patio bricks as rows (probably next year).  We actually have these patio blocks as a patio right now, so they are perfect.  I put up some cute little butterfly fences to keep my dogs off the berry bushes.  So we have now filled 8 boxes completely and started filling theothers.  Hopefully I have enough dirt and mixing in the compost and garden soil will give enough fertilizer for this year.  In the past when the garden was in my ‘old spot’ the first year I mixed garden soil right in with my top soil, worked great had good production, etc.  The 2^nd year I mixed in manure in the spring and that too was good production.  So since I’m putting in topsoil in the boxes I figure adding compost and garden soil should be good.  I sure hope so!  We finally went and bought a small tow behind the tractor dump trailer, so worth the $100 versus the wheelbarrow!

Here’s some of our progress we made  For some reason I thought 6 would fit, but it didn’t, no biggie my husband said we’ll just go over, since we are going to move the trampoline over into the old garden corner, it won’t matter anyway.  So, alas I still will get my 17 big boxes and I have enough for a 3x3 box that I plan to use strictly for garlic, which is currently growing in a planter.   He’s such a wonderful man.. he’s doing this for me because as far as he’s concerned he could careless about gardening!

Strawberries are showing some signs of life!

(empty beds)

(waiting to have garden soil mixed in)

This is where we are today.  I went last week and got 20 bags of manure and 20 bags of garden soil to mix into my topsoil.  Got to get another 20 bags each to finish.

Mama, this is exhausting work!

My 8 yr old decided he wants to make some planter boxes for flowers, so my mom gave us some flower seeds and my husband said he would help him build the boxes and we’ll figure out somewhere to put them.  The one thing I almost forgot was moving my hanging planters over to my new area so I can hang flower baskets up.  Got my order in to Gurney’s and can’t wait for all that stuff to come.  Berry bushes, grapevines, potatoes and some more strawberry plants!  I’m so excited about this garden, it darn well better show me some major love and produce good!  And I started some more tomato and pepper seeds, I’ll be curious to see how they do, I won’t be putting them out for atleast another month or so.  I’ve replanted all my tomato plants into other containers and they are thriving!

Jalapenos

Cucumbers and Peppers

Tomatoes

Hoping tonight will allow me to plant my beets, carrots and onions.  It’s been icky, rainy and cooler weather.  But the box I wanted to put these guys in is done, so hopefully it will be atleast not rainy for me to do that!

Until next time!