raised garden beds

Revive!

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It’s quite appropriate to me that my first post in…a while…is about gardening and SPRING! Both of these glorious things make me feel hopeful, rejuvenated, and motivated, none of which I’ve been feeling much of this year until the wave of warmth hit central VA this week.

I got my hands dirty yesterday.

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Transplanted some strawberries, hopefully to a better spot!

 

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Harvested winter greens that have been slowly but surely growing over the last 5 months.

 

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I found a few surprises as I weeded and sowed some pea seeds.

 

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Tried to convince myself that this is the year I will actually get good at composting…

 

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And I was reminded that

  • gardening is hard!
  • gardening is awesome!
  • I am a pretty lazy gardener and need to stick to crops that are “worth it” for me to grow and that I’ve had proven success with over the last 5 years in Charlottesville.  These are kale, lettuce, collards, mustard/asian greens, cucumbers, green beans, and damnitifidontfaileverytimeimstilltrying tomatoes!

I am going to try some straw bale gardens this year, I’d love any feedback and recommendations you have from experience with this technique.

 

Raise the Bed

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Happy Solstice!  To my friends in the Northern Hemisphere, let’s play into the wee hours and celebrate the longest day of the year!  To the Southern Hemisphere, rejoice!  The darkness is dwindling and your Spring will come.

This Solstice marks the start of my third Summer in Central Virginia.   We had a wet and cool Spring, mostly a welcome respite from the melting heat that can land in May and stay until October.  Yesterday Tate said “we’ve only had one day so far that was close to 100*!”, I quickly reminded him that it wasn’t even Summer yet!

The weather has been awesome for the garden.  I’m not counting my chickens tomatoes yet but I do believe it’s going to be the best growing season I’ve had.

Between the weather and the raised beds it’s looking like a bumper crop!

This is also our third growing season in our house.  We’ve had raised beds since our first fall but we really expanded this year.

The two furthest skinny beds were added this year for tomatoes.  We had beds there last year but not raised.  The soil was lacking and they were tricky to mow around so they got elevated.

The real excitement though are these two awesome BIG raised beds.

The best part? There’s NO WAY that damn groundhog is eating my green beans!  These beds are three feet tall, two feet wide, and eight feet long each.  The height is a little excessive but that was the size of the tin and it makes it really easy to pick and weed.

Tate built these beds in an afternoon out of tin and lumber from Lowes’s.  I’ve been seeing designs similar to this around town and he took the idea as a springboard and ran with it.  I love them! And they are right outside our kitchen window so I can watch the beans, squash, cucumbers, and tomato grow as I cook.

Again, Happy Solstice!