October 29, 2014

cutting greenhouse plastic to cover hoops

I got my roll of plastic out and brought it down to the garden today. Its standard clear 6 mil greenhouse film from Greenhouse Megastore. Its the first time I’ve used this. Its 12 feet wide, so seems perfect for covering my 1/2 in PVC pipes, which are 10 feet long. There will be 1 ft at each side for anchoring. I suppose I could have measured the tunnels, figured out the length of plastic I needed to cover the 12 foot bed plus the two edges and then added…

October 29, 2014

hoops ready for covering

My winter bed is ready to be covered. The weather has been beautiful so far this month. Perfect for growing a bed full of greens. Today, we are expecting more warm sunny weather, but Thursday, temperatures are going down. I’ll get out the plastic and cover the bed today. Not sure if I should put the gnomes in the winter tunnel. They’ve worked so hard all summer – may be ready for a rest from gardening.

May 1, 2014

first bed is full

Today I filled my first bed in the new garden (actually the second from the edge, but the first one filled). I had half filled it last week and planted peas, and today completed bringing in topsoil and compost from a local farm. I planted broccoli (9 plants – a mix of early and late varieties), Asian greens, endive (escarole frissee and a broad leaved escarole) and 2 varieties of butterhead lettuce (Skyphos and Prizehead). It was a chilly day (45*F for a high) and rain is predicted all night…

April 28, 2014

new garden gate

April 27, 2014

putting up garden fencing

A cold dreary April day. My husband and I put up fencing around the 3 raised beds that I’ll be planting spring crops in soon. For many of the posts, we ran into rock about 4 inches down. Seems maybe there’s a layer of rocky fill down there. Suzie and Skippy patiently watched and were soaked by the cold rain by the time we finished. They dug a good hole under the rhododendron for fun and played in the fresh mud. Now, its evening, and they are clean. They got…

April 7, 2014

leveling my new raised beds

My raised beds are on a bit of a slope. To level them, my husband secured a 2×4 horizontally to the bottom of each bed at the downhill side. He used three 2×4 stakes on each and left these sticking out a few inches at the bottom. One some beds where the slope was steeper, we left the stakes at the soil surface and filled in below with a layer of brick. For most, the stakes were dug in leaving the horizontal 2×4 resting at soil surface. One or two…

March 29, 2014

the raised bed movie!

Here’s another movie of my garden: Time lapse video of raised bed construction. Funny to see us running around and making 8 raised beds in 2 minutes….

March 29, 2014

eight new raised bed frames

Yesterday my husband and I made eight raised beds for my new garden! Kind of a dreary late March day, but I am so happy seeing the beds all lined up! We made six 4×12 foot beds and two 6×15 foot beds. To make the six 4×12 beds: – We started with fifteen 2x8x12’s, untreated pine. – We brought a compound miter saw down to the garden area. (It was raining off an on so we used a canopy to keep it dry. – To make the 4′ edges, four…

March 26, 2014

scoping out sizes of new raised beds

My husband and son carried the wood that will edge my new raised beds down to the site of my new garden. We then laid out a few pieces to see how the beds will look. My plan has six 4×12 foot beds and two 6×15 foot beds.

March 26, 2014

time lapse video: making Skippy’s new garden

I am making a time lapse video of my new vegetable garden. So far, the video only shows us bringing the boards for the raised beds down to the garden area. The boards are 2×8 untreated pine. We also set out a few boards where the edges of the beds will be, just to see how they look. Time Lapse Video: Making Skippy’s New Garden I’ll extend the video as we create the garden and as the plants grow this year. Tomorrow we plan to make the raised bed frames.

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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