Waaaay back in October, my sweet husband built a raised garden bed for our veggies to grow.

raised garden bed square foot gardening

I asked him if he wanted to write a how-to guide, but truth be told, he just followed a really simple tutorial from Sunset. Ryan bought cedar lumber from a place called Capital City Lumber. Cedar is supposed to be a great wood for a raised garden beds because it resists weathering well.

raised garden bed cedar lumber

He built the frame within a day. I think the key is having a level surface to work on, otherwise the frame might be wonky. He stapled wire to the bottom of the frame to block rodents and major growth from digging in through the bottom of the bed.

raised garden bed assembly

Here it is, upside down. We dug post holes for the legs to go in the ground.

 

raised garden bed

It ended up being about $180 for all the supplies. Fast forward to recently, and the raised garden bed was looking a little sad. Before planting anything, I amended the soil with my favorite stuff – Black Kow composted manure.

raised garden bed

Then came planting. This year, I’m trying square foot gardening. I’ve never done it before, but I need seeing pictures and magazine features and thought, hey, why not give it a shot? So I made a plan. The blank squares give the viney plants room to spread. I have peppers too, but they’re getting potted.

square foot gardening plan

I hammered nails one foot apart on all four sides of the raised bed. (I left about 1/4″ of the nail out to give space for the twine).

square foot gardening

I wrapped cotton twine back and forth between the nails, forming a grid.

square foot gardening

Voila! Square foot plots for gardening.

I transplanted the seeds I started back in March, plus direct seeded a few more (basically all the greens). The arugula is especially cute, I’ll have to snap a picture of that when it gets a little larger. Cucumber below!

That was our jump on spring activities. Like I mentioned last week, we’re on a slight pollen delay. Even as I write this from my comfy couch, my eyes are watering and itchy. LOVE IT. No. Wait. Do not love it.

But I do love the prospects of fresh veggies in my garden. What are you growing this year?

2 Responses to Cotton Twine, Cow Poo And A Raised Garden Bed

  1. Megan says:

    Oh my gosh, this is awesome! I have never done arugula…is it hard? I love arugula! Also, I’m totally getting some black cow manure :). Love all of the tips!! Pinned this! Hope you are having a great week!!

    • paige says:

      The arugula is SO easy! You can do 9 seeds per square inch. I’m not sure when it’ll be ready to harvest, but it’s growing fast. I probably should have planted them around February, but oh well. Late leafy greens!

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