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.
It was your raised beds that brought me to your blog and I stayed here, reading every post 🙂 I only have one raised bed, which is my whole veg patch, probably the size of one of yours, as I only have a little garden. But the satisfaction of growing your own is probably the same! I have spring onions, courgettes, peas, beans, radish, lettuce and some herbs, so all my favourite things!
I really enjoyed seeing how your veg garden has developed, and can’t wait to see your crops.
Please keep posting, this is a fabulous blog!
Thank you so much – I’m so glad you enjoy reading my posts! 🙂 I think no matter the size of the garden, it is so gratifying to eat a meal made of things you’ve nurtured and harvested yourself. We’ve got a lot going on in there right now. A variety of tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, lettuce, cucumbers, herbs, squash, lettuce and beets. Corn, Brussels sprouts and spinach are planned for a bit later in the season and peas sound like a really good idea. I will absolutely keep you posted on the crops and hopefully some great recipes too. Thanks for the great comments!