Filling our first raised bed on Saturday. This is our first attempt to really grow food. We've had strawberries and tomatoes in containers and had fun with them. This time we are going for carrots, corn, cabbage, peas, chives, basil, cilantro, mixed meslcun lettuces, bush beans, scarlet runner beans and pumpkins! In fact, we have decided to not only plant in these two raised beds, but also are going to take out a good section of lawn next to them and add more garden space. We may be too ambitious but it has been so fun so far. I've been reading as much as I can and asking people for vegetable growing advice based on their experiences with gardening in this area. It is amazing to tap into the passion and knowledge that surrounds vegetable gardening. People become very ingenious at raising temperatures around their gardens when they are told something won't grow in our climate. It is like a personal challenge to prove the gardening zoning books wrong. Some people even have hardy figs and banana trees in their gardens!
Evelyn playing in the backyard.
Finley jumping into the raised bed before we filled them up with dirt.
We put pea gravel on the bottom and then a layer of landscaping cloth to keep weeds down and improve drainage. Then we filled them up with the four way mix of topsoil from Palmer Coking Coal Company out in Black Diamond. They used to be a mining company and now they provide all sorts of landscaping materials and soils and gravels. I learned that they have the exclusive contract with Safeco Field for their ball field materials needs! In anycase, its good rich dirt with lots of compost mixed in. We also added veggie food, too. I can see that I will also need to put straw or some kind of mulching on top to keep the soil from compacting from the rain, too.
Todd testing out the beds! Little did he know just how much he'd need a bed after he got finished loading all that dirt in, one wheelbarrowful at a time! Nothing like hard, physical labor to make you appreciate what our ancestors must have gone through just to grow enough food to survive. And, gulp, what many people in the world still have to go through with subsistence farming. They don't have any one to bring in loads of good topsoil!
Filling our first raised bed on Saturday. This is our first attempt to really grow food. We've had strawberries and tomatoes in containers and had fun with them. This time we are going for carrots, corn, cabbage, peas, chives, basil, cilantro, mixed meslcun lettuces, bush beans, scarlet runner beans and pumpkins! In fact, we have decided to not only plant in these two raised beds, but also are going to take out a good section of lawn next to them and add more garden space. We may be too ambitious but it has been so fun so far. I've been reading as much as I can and asking people for vegetable growing advice based on their experiences with gardening in this area. It is amazing to tap into the passion and knowledge that surrounds vegetable gardening. People become very ingenious at raising temperatures around their gardens when they are told something won't grow in our climate. It is like a personal challenge to prove the gardening zoning books wrong. Some people even have hardy figs and banana trees in their gardens!
Evelyn playing in the backyard.
Finley jumping into the raised bed before we filled them up with dirt.
We put pea gravel on the bottom and then a layer of landscaping cloth to keep weeds down and improve drainage. Then we filled them up with the four way mix of topsoil from Palmer Coking Coal Company out in Black Diamond. They used to be a mining company and now they provide all sorts of landscaping materials and soils and gravels. I learned that they have the exclusive contract with Safeco Field for their ball field materials needs! In anycase, its good rich dirt with lots of compost mixed in. We also added veggie food, too. I can see that I will also need to put straw or some kind of mulching on top to keep the soil from compacting from the rain, too.
Todd testing out the beds! Little did he know just how much he'd need a bed after he got finished loading all that dirt in, one wheelbarrowful at a time! Nothing like hard, physical labor to make you appreciate what our ancestors must have gone through just to grow enough food to survive. And, gulp, what many people in the world still have to go through with subsistence farming. They don't have any one to bring in loads of good topsoil!
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