With spring here, things have been busy! Weekly yard mowing, the grass grows about 8″ a week this time of the year, and trying to catch up and keep up with the weeds in the garden beds is keeping us busy! Here is what we have been up to..
I am converting my vegetable garden space into raised beds, and enlarging the space a great deal.
Breaking Ground for the Garden 2011
such a rainy spring and late planting season there just wasn’t time to gather the materials and get things together. I just raked up the dirt into semi-raised beds, and went from there.
Vegetable Garden Space 2011
This year I started early and made 4 raised beds from cedar boards and some metal corners that I purchased from Gardeners.com. (You can also see in this picture that I am painting and sprucing up some of the yard ornaments).
Building the Raised Beds
I am using cedar boards and metal corners so that the beds will last without rotting for awhile. They measure 2″ x 6″ x 8′. I actually put them together under the covered area of the deck, while it was raining out! One at a time!
I am making a special soil mixture to put in them from the instructions in “All New Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew. I read several other blogs last year where others had switched to the square foot method of growing. They were much more successful using his methods than traditional gardening techniques. That was enough to encourage me to give it a try.
I think that using these beds will help me extend the gardening season because I can cover the plants from frost, and they will enable me to plant earlier each year, than planting directly into the ground. It will also make it easier to use trellises to support my plants.
The first raised bed
I took this first bed out to the garden area when I made it, just to see how it would look. I have since moved it a couple of times because I have torn down the fencing and I’m cleaning up the area. This weekend we are renting an auger, and putting in some wood fence posts in. They are going in the garden corners, on each side of where the gate will be and halfway along each side of the garden, along with the metal posts, for added stability.
Neighbor Turtle
When I was tearing down the fencing, I ran across this little guy! He was stuck in the corner of the garden against the fence, no way out. Good thing I was removing the fence that day….he was about 8″ long and 6″ wide. As soon as the fence was gone, so was he!
Here you can see his little head peeking out at me! I’m sure he scurried off to the pond next door.
I also got the hummingbird feeder out and hung up on the deck. I think that I filled it about 4 times this last week…………lol! There was humming here all day, every day!
Hummingbirds
Blocks at the Bottom of the Stairs
I also tore out these blocks, dug out around them, and re-laid them. There are some creeping plants that are growing there, but the blocks were so lopsided, and the weeds had taken over that I needed to clean it out. I have planted more creeping plants that will work well here, but it’s currently raining too hard to get a good picture of them. I’ll catch up with some picture taking this weekend. Other things:
Lilacs Blooming
The lilac blooms are opening up. The rhododendrons and azaleas are blooming,
Rhododendron
and the gardens are showing all kinds of life,
Purple Trilliums
This is such a beautiful time of the year here. There is always plenty to do, and if you have a chance to get things done, in between the rain, you take it! lol!
Thanks for stopping by!
