We made it a priority this year to get raised garden beds installed in our new back yard. And by “we” I mean that I planted a few plants, raked a bit of dirt around, moved two wheel barrows of dirt and mulched said plants. Someone else did the heavy lifting.
My husband constructed us three 4′ x 8′ raised garden beds out of cedar planks. They are about 12″ tall. Cedar is supposed to resist decay better than other types of wood. He then dug out the existing grass, leveled the ground a bit, placed cardboard in the bottom and filled them with dirt. Well, I helped with the cardboard too. Do you see how much work I did here?
We planted:
- Eight tomato varieties
- Two basil varieties
- Two chards (one red, one yellow)
- Five pepper varieties (jalapeño, bell, serrano, etc)
- Three mounds of cucumbers
- A row of okra seeds
- A row of beans from seed
- Marigolds from seed, to hopefully help keep the bugs away