Garden: Under Construction

For the past week, I've been working off & on to build a raised bed garden at the front of the house. I think there was once a large concrete and gravel parking pad there, but the concrete has long since broken to bits and all that grows is weeds (of course). It's always struck me as "wasted space": No grass to look pretty, waaaaaaay too much parking for what I need, and it gets full sun from sunrise until about 6 PM in summer. Perfect for a garden, but there was no way to make an in-ground garden with all that rock and concrete.

So, a few trips to Menard's and Fleet Farm, and there you have it: My new raised bed garden! For the beds, I used 1 x 6 pine boards and painted them my signature color. ( I love Valspar's Phlox.) When I went to build the boxes, I discovered that I was out of deck screws, so I banged them together with some spare nails. Yes, they won't last forever, but I don't care. They should be functional for at least a few seasons! To fill them, I used one 2.2. cubic foot bag of peat moss, two 1 cubic foot bag of composted manure, one bag each of topsoil, organic garden soil, and a different brand of garden soil. After mixing it all together, it filled my 4 x 4 boxes to the brim and once it settles overnight, will become a great growing medium for assorted sunflowers, beans, and squashes.

I built the arched trellis out of a hog panel and four T-posts pounded into the ground. Between pounding the posts and forcing a stiff 16 foot reinforced steel wire panel to bend in half, I got quite the whole body workout. Once wedged into place, it seems happy enough to stay put, but I used a bunch of industrial strength zip-ties to hold'er in place.

After filling my beds and making the trellis, I decided the garden needed a little more beautifying. So I headed into town again, and loaded the car up with bags and bags of mulch. Sure, it would cheaper to get a load, but I don't have a pickup or trailer and this is the easiest way to get a load of mulch home. (They were on sale, too, for the holiday weekend.) I couldn't resist a fused glass bird bath, so that came home too. My mom had given me the St. Francis statue for my birthday, and he finally came out of the box and made it into the garden.

More pictures will come soon, once things start growing. I think it looks pretty good so far, don't you?