Garden Girls

Garden Girls

Since we are all sheltering at home, we’re not out and about as much as we used to be, so I finally found the time to start a garden. I’d wanted to do this for several years, but I’ve never felt I could give it the attention it deserved. This year I can!

I decided to start very small. I don’t know a lot about gardening, so I chose to just do one raised bed using relatively easy-to-grow plants, and see what we think. If we like it and it does well, we can always do it bigger next year.

The Raised Bed

I researched raised bed designs and decided instead of building our own, we would buy one. We found one for a very reasonable price at Sam’s. We put it together easily, despite it coming with no instructions. Besides not coming with directions, the bed came with two broken connectors. Unfortunately, I did not open it ahead of time and I didn’t want to send it back or request replacement parts because I did not want to wait. Fortunately, my hubby had some glue (some sort of compound) and he used that to put them back together. I was disappointed it came this way, but I’m glad he’s resourceful and it seems to be holding up fine.

The Soil

One of the best things about a raised bed is you can control the soil. I researched a lot about how much soil we would need and the mix the soil should be. We bought a pre-made organic soil mix from our local Ace Hardware. We ended up getting a little too much, but I’d rather have more than not enough.

The Plants

It was very important to me for the plants to be raised organically. I don’t want any chemicals on our food. However, we live on property with a lot of wildlife, so I knew besides the normal garden pests, we would also have deer and rabbits to contend with in our garden. To combat this, I looked up different plants and herbs to deter pests, deer, and rabbit. I also looked up herbs and plants that work well together and compliment each other. I also took into account plants that grow well in the area I live and the sun conditions of where the bed would go in our yard.

I knew tomatoes needed cages to “climb”, so I put those around them. I also put my cucumbers and squash at the other end of the bed so they would have room to spill out (this advice came from a friend who is a wonderful gardener).

I bought some cute little bamboo tags that came with a waterproof marker and labeled the plants.

This is what I came up with:

I didn’t have room in the bed to plant the rosemary (and it doesn’t really play well with others) or the lavender, so I have them planted outside the bed. Hopefully their scent will deter the bunnies and Bambi (fingers crossed!). I planted the mint in a pot near the bed because while it’s scent should keep away critters, it has a tendency to take areas over, so I wanted it contained.

We had a lot of fun planting this and hope to enjoy the “fruits” of our labor soon. I’ve already enjoyed some of the fresh mint in my newest spring cocktail concoction!