Though I don't live on our land yet, I should be there within the month, so we decided to go ahead and put in the vegetable garden. I didn't want to wait and be sweating over my tomatoes in the worst heat of summer, if I had a choice. So even though Saturday was my birthday (32!) and I woke up with an ugly migraine, we set to work. And I do mean "we" since I have absolutely no abilities when it comes to construction projects or tools, and both were necessary for raised garden beds. Thank God for Mom and Dad coming to the rescue yet again!
I read a book last year called "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. It made sense to me - maybe because of my OCD or maybe just because I've never had a vegetable garden before and this seemed a good, logical way to start. Yes, you read right – I’ve never even had a little veggie garden, and here I am moving out to the country… I’m just going to figure it out as I go along. ;) Feel free to point and laugh.
Mom and Dad got started early making boxes, and I arrived mid-morning and picked out our spot. We set to work using the tractor to level the land as much as possible. The whole leveling process took a lot longer than I’d expected, but it was so important to get these started properly that it was a necessary investment in time. Besides, I don’t think Mom minded, since she loves driving the tractor! I did start to worry at that point that we wouldn’t be able to finish by Sunday evening though…
Once the immediate area was level, we laid out the boxes, and half-hammered nails at 12" intervals on each side, so they were sticking out a bit. These would be used to string our gridline later. We also laid landscape fabric underneath… and then it was suppertime. Yes, the levelling took that.long. My head was still pounding and it was my birthday, so we called it quits for the day. Here’s how we left it on Saturday evening:
Sunday, we started out by attaching vertical pieces of 1" pvc pipe cut into 6" lengths onto the sides of each bed, so we could easily bend long pieces of 1/2" pvc and slide them inside the fixed larger pieces, to act as a frame for cover or netting if needed later. (I found that idea on Pinterest and followed the link to Sunset where it was originally posted with instructions)
The book calls for the beds to be filled with "Mel's mix," which is just 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 mixed compost, and 1/3 vermiculite (by volume, not weight). I definitely underestimated exactly how much of this mix would be required! What an undertaking!!!
I used a 15 liter pail to measure, putting one pail of each product in the wheelbarrow at a time, mixing it together, dumping it in a bed, and starting over. Times about a MILLION! (Ok, maybe not a million) This part of the process would be easier if you could work with a team approach, or if you were strong enough to mix and wheel around 6 pails of mix instead of 3. Alas, this weak-armed single gal had to do it the long way to begin with (I got help towards the end). Each of the 4x4’ beds took about 6 wheelbarrow loads of Mel’s Mix, and I lost count on the larger / deeper beds. Here's a picture of one of the many, many wheelbarrow loads involved.
As I got the boxes nearly full of mix, Dad started stringing twine in the grid pattern that separates each square foot of the beds. (At this point, Mom was still driving the tractor around, spreading dirt beyond the garden area, to make things a little more even…or maybe just because she was having fun. haha) The book recommends using 1” lat boards to make the grid, but we’re thinking twine is less expensive, easier to install and takes up less space. I may regret it at some point, but this is what we’re doing for now.
Mom finally finished up on the tractor, and started helping with the mix (Hallelujah!), because it was taking foreeeeeever, and Dad pitched in toward the end as he finished up with the grids too, so I was free to spread out the mix in the beds and distribute it evenly.
We didn’t quite finish the 12” deep bed since we ran out of Vermiculite, but the rest are done and ready for planting! Here’s where we’re at now:
If I did it again:
- I’d string some twine along the ground in straight lines, in order to line up the beds and keep them straight before we filled them. I think mine are a little crooked, but hey - this is our first attempt, and I'm proud of it!
- If I were working alone, I’d look into a mixer attachment for the drill, so I didn’t have to work so hard mixing the compost, vermiculite and peat.
- I would have ideally had a second person and a second wheelbarrow, so one person could be mixing and the other person dumping the mix in the beds and spreading it out at all times.
- I would have done the leveling on a different day than we planned to actually put in the beds. It was really important to get it level, but it took a lot of time.
- I would have spread poison for the fire ants the weekend before. I forgot how much those darn bites sting!
- I would not leave a hoe lying on the ground where I could step on the end and bonk myself in the forehead with the handle. Lesson learned!
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