The snow is not quite gone, but I’ve started building and placing the new garden beds.
They are each three feet by six feet. I’ll probably also add two three foot square beds yet this spring, before it’s time to plant. By planting season next spring, I want to add an additional three or four of the longer beds. A few each year, as I am building them out of pine. Staggering when they are added will mean not having to replace all of them at once, when they rot.
I left the posts a little taller for attaching makeshift hoop houses. It really extends the growing season.
The dirt pile by the closest one is from the bed I tore out, which would have been too close to the front of the beehive. The odd spacing between the closest one and the one behind it is because one of our apple trees is there. As they say, they don’t stay small for long.
The goal is to turn most of the yard into garden, rather than lawn. The benefits will be many. At some point I don’t want to see a single swatch of lawn, other than maybe where the grill and fire pit are. Maybe.
The biggest challenge now is going to be filling the new beds. My compost bin, for now, isn’t producing enough for this. Most, if not all, of the local farmers spray their crops with chemicals, so acquiring straw for the very bottoms of the beds isn’t feasible. Our local brush site offers compost to area residents, but I worry that it comes from yard waste that had been treated with herbicides and pesticides. The existing beds were filled with soil and manure from a big box store. I’ll probably have to go that route for the new ones. It’s pricey, but only up front. Then it’s just maintenance.
Hopefully I’ll be able to build a shed in the back (left) corner yet this year.
It’s cold outside today. I’m taking a break to drink hot coffee and plan where to plant things like marigold and wild bergamot.
