It’s Plant’n Time!

Posted by on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

I just love fresh vegetables.  Last summer Cousin Kelly and I made several trips to Kentucky.  We were on a quest for Peaches and Cream Corn, okra, tomatoes, peppers, and peaches.  We shucked and silked several hundred ears of corn to freeze.  We canned tomatoes.  I froze peppers, peaches, strawberries, and blueberries.  It has been a joy to reach for home canned tomatoes when making stews and sauces.  And I can hardly get by without my breakfast shake, made with fresh forzen fruits.  Yum-O!

Richard and I are not expert gardeners in any shape, form, or fashion.  However, plans were made several weeks ago to put in a raised bed garden this year.  So we are diving headfirst into ameture gardening.  And we feel the need to be vulnerable and share our pending success or failure here in the blog world for all to see.

First of all, we talked with the garden guy at Lowe’s who emphatically recommended THE GARDEN PRIMER, 100% ORGANIC GARDENING.  You can get it here from Amazon for only $7.20 over half off! This book has all the info we could possibly need.  It is a complete guide and includes chapters on soil prep, building raised beds, and over 150 pages explaining how to plant and care for any vegetable we care to grow.

Today we got the raised bed framework built.  It helps if you have a retired neighbor with tractor(s) that need to be used.  When Mr. Turner saw a garden in the works, he showed up with his tractor and turned up the dirt in no time!

 

Some folks build a 10×10 bed.  Ours is more like 25×5.  Someone in town had torn down their raised beds and had left the lumber by the road for scavengers to remove.  Lucky for us! We got the wood for free!

 

I failed to take a final photo once the bed frame was finished.  It was pretty basic.  Dear Hubby connected the lengths by using several screws to join the long pieces.  Screws were placed into corner brackets that were placed on the insides of each corner. 

The next step is to fill the frame with organic soil, humus or peat moss, and natural fertilizer (manure).  As soon as we complete the next step, we shall share.  What about you? Would you like to try out your green thumb?

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Filed in Gardening | 2 responses so far

2 Responses to “It’s Plant’n Time!”

  1. Sunnyon 19 Mar 2009 at 8:02 am 1

    I plan on planting cucumbers, tomatoes, okra and green beans this summer. Fortunately we have a retired couple living next door that LOVES to garden. She has several seeds for me to use and has offered her help when it comes to planting time after the 15th of April. I need to get my bed ready by getting all of the weeds out. I am really excited about my garden (even though I will be the ONLY one to eat it). I can’t wait to see your garden!

  2. Jenifer Goodeon 22 Mar 2009 at 10:49 pm 2

    Hey Tara, I enjoyed reading about your gardening ventures… Jay and I have talked about doing the same thing! I will have to get a copy of that book you suggested. Thanks for the encouragement! Keep your posts coming, I look forward to following along!
    Jen