Grow, Garden, Grow!

Cody and I decided to try a garden again this year. Last time we had a garden, it was completed flooded by the river that runs through our backyard when it rains. Most of the garden was washed away; if it was strong enough to withstand the river, it drowned in the puddles of water that sat on top of our garden after the rain stopped. This year, we are hoping that we have outsmarted the weather--we built a raised bed for our garden (plus a smaller version for my new strawberry patch!) The garden bed is 8 x 4 feet, and the strawberry patch bed is 4 x 4 feet.

We built the beds on Saturday afternoon, well, Cody really built them. I just held the boards together while he hammered--he did all the grunt work.

After the beds were built, we added landscaping fabric to the bottom to (hopefully!) prevent weeds. Then, we filled the beds with a mixture of top soil and compost. It took about five bags of each for the small one, and ten bags of each for the large box. Today, I planted nine strawberry plants and mulched around them with straw. I forgot to take a picture before it got dark, so I will try to get one this week. Unfortunately, everything I have read suggests to pluck the blossoms off for the first few months to encourage plant and root growth during the first year--that means no strawberries for a while, and probably not a very big harvest this year.

We haven't planted anything in the garden bed yet--Lowe's doesn't have many plants in stock yet. We plan on planting some tomates, peppers, and cucumbers. We'll keep you updated as our garden grows....

...hopefully all this work will pay off in the end!