New Garden - Step One

Well, now that I think about it...step one was probably the dirt.

Garden - Next Step.  Maybe that's more accurate.

It's still only February, which is usually my least favorite month.  Still, it's a very important month for garden prep, especially when one is starting a raised-bed garden from scratch.  So here goes...

Last year's gardening was kind of a bust.  Our Epic Move and House Redo and Deployment Preparation sprawled all over spring, summer, and fall, making gardening all but impossible.  As a result, my own heirloom seed collection is pretty pitiful, and I found myself ordering out of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog again.  Eventually, though, I hope to have my collection beefed up to the point that in future years I don't have to order seeds, or I can order just for fun to try out some wacky variety.

 




My seeds arrived in less than a week, and I had them out of the mailing envelope in about .05 seconds, then chose a south(ish) facing window, put up a set of plastic shelves, and planted tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant in some Jiffy seed-starting trays.  More purist-minded gardeners may run from these trays, but I find them to be clean and easy to deal with, and you can get them as well as the little peat-pod refill things just about anywhere.

With the seeds started and our recent days taking a surprising turn to short-sleeved warmth, I've been outdoors preparing my garden beds.  During construction of my last raised-bed garden, I built my garden beds with rough-cut cedar boards, which I'd gotten free from a guy in town who no longer wanted them.  Unfortunately, what I saved in actual money, I paid for in labor.  The boards were all different lengths, widths, and thicknesses...sometimes within the same board.  They eventually made very good beds, after a LOT of blood, sweat, and tears.  And bad words.  But hey, they were free.

However, though cedar is "rot resistant", it is not "rot proof." I found that after two garden seasons some of the boards were a little worse for wear and in need of replacement, had the Army seen fit to let us be as planned.

Anyway, now that I've left those beds behind and I'm starting all over, I bit the bullet and bought my boards new.  Now that I'm buying my boards, I'm going for time-saving, practically indestructible pressure-treated boards.

For those with concerns over using pressure-treated lumber for garden beds, I stumbled on a blog that I feel puts the issue to bed:  Using Treated Lumber

It's a little pricey - I'm using three 2x12x8' boards per bed (one of course cut in half for the ends), ending up with what I feel is the optimum 4' x 8' garden bed, all attached with 3" deck screws.  At about $12 bucks a pop for a board, it adds up quick.  The nice thing, though, is that most lumber yards will not only cut the boards you need cut, but load them, too.  Once you get them home, they slap together very quickly.  A person could save a little money by choosing 2x10's or 2x8's, but I wanted the extra height.

This plan is also much cheaper than buying cedar, as well as being much cheaper than replacing rotted boards every year.  I've also tried to spread out the expenses over the winter - I purchased the dirt last month, and at my current rate of buying the boards for one bed per week, it's not such an all-at-once financial shellacking.

My eventual goal is eight beds, but I'll be happy if I get four built this year.  Happier if I get six.

And a side note - it was much faster loading the dirt into the beds with a tractor and front-end loader.  I'm now downgraded to a shovel.  I keep reminding myself that my farming ancestors didn't have tractors, either.

Things to remember when totally building new beds:  1)  Remember to leave enough room to get a lawnmower between beds.  2)  When telling the guy in the dump truck where to dump the dirt, be sure to know EXACTLY where the beds are going to go first.  (I ended up slightly changing my location, and as you can see, the dirt pile is now slightly in the way.)

I try not to think about how many vegetables I could've already bought with the money spent on this new garden, and remind myself that these are expenses I will not be repeating next year.  

Did you hear that, Army?