Set up to Succeed

Back in April we added raised beds to our garden. The idea of having warmer soil temperatures, control of soil quality and fewer weeds appealed to us. Since then, we’ve made even more changes to our garden to make it easier and more fun to grow our own food.

{raised beds filled with dirt}

{all the necessities for the garden}

First, to keep the weeds at bay we lined the walkways with landscaping fabric.

Once the fabric was down, we spread around a 2″ layer of pine bark mulch.

Soaker hoses came next. We ran two 75′ hoses, one hose per two beds. We also hooked up a timer to the spigot to make watering even easier.

Then, we determined the layout for the plants in each of the beds.

Afterward, continuing with the goal of weed prevention, we laid out more landscape fabric over the beds and the cut small x’s into the fabric and dug holes for the plants. I also used some of the terracotta pots I found in the out building to plant marigolds in hopes of keeping away mosquitoes.

 And, I’ve started to make plant markers, I haven’t finished yet, mainly because I haven’t found enough stones.  I’m using smooth stones and sharpies to make these simple and free plant identifiers. 

Using silver as a background color helps them stand out.

Here’s the updated garden.

So excited for tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers, and everything else.