Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Expanding My Suburban Garden

This spring with high hopes of a more bountiful garden, I set out to make an additional raised garden bed. I found easy to follow instructions here and my bed came together like this. The new bed measures 5 x 10'. The cost for materials was about $30, with the same amount needed for suitable fill. I set the new bed pretty much perpendicular to an existing which has made the chore of watering a whole lot easier.

The last two pictures, taken about 2 weeks ago, show the gardens with all their plants which include: zucchini, snap peas, spinach, sunflowers, tomatoes, and bell peppers. We have since enjoyed the spinach and are currently enjoying the snap peas. The tomatoes and sunflowers have grown rapidly in those 14 days and I now see some fruits setting on, so am hopeful we'll actually get some ripe red ones this year before temps cool with many green tomatoes on the vine. It is so satisfying to eat produce from your own garden and I am also glad that at least for now, the garden beds add an element of green to the backyard which is sorely lacking from what should be our lawn area. A lush green lawn in Colorado seems like such a luxury, but I'll just focus on the delight of productive garden this year.

2 comments:

Mom2Drew said...

Rachel--Your garden looks GREAT! have you been enjoying all the rain we've been getting?

I'm catching up on your blog and enjoying all the pictures. Let's get together soon.

Karen said...

You go girl!
Seeing you at VBS - your hair is getting long :)
Enjoy your summer