After endless delays that have kept us in our old home for two agonizingly long months, we finally have our closing date! On Thursday, our new old home will officially be ours, and just in the knick of time.
This weekend will be spent building garden beds, because I need to get my veggies in he ground as soon as possible. Our last frost date was last week, and with the beautiful weather we're having, it feels like we're getting a terribly late start.
I've finally decided on a design for my raised beds.
This is something I've agonized over and experimented with and researched until my head spun. I want to steer clear of treated wood because of the chemicals used to make them rot-resistant. I've tried non-treated lumber only to find myself rebuilding beds every couple years. I ruled out cedar and paver stones because of the cost.
Then I stumbled upon a garden blog with photographs of a raised bed design I'd never even thought of - cinder blocks. Less expensive than decorative block and more durable than any wood, it is the perfect solution! I plan to use 12" x 6" block and use the holes in the blocks to plant herbs and ornamental companions like marigolds to form an attractive border around the main vegetable beds.
So on Friday, I'm off to the local lumber yard to buy a hundred or so cinder blocks to get a start on my first section of garden in the new yard, a 9' by 34' area outsid my kitchen window that is just begging to become a kitchen garden. Two 3' wide beds will run the length of the space with a path between them, ending at a strawberry tower at the fence. At the entrance to the space will be raspberry plants trained upright on a system of 4' x 4's and galvanized wire.
Now all that is left is to build an attractive, inexpensive gate for the area, to keep my over-eager Lab puppies from digging up my precious plants.
7 years ago
