Garden Set-up

This year Ben and I were finally in a place that we could start a garden.  As one pin on pinterest says, "Gardening: it is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes".

We knew the soil in the area was pretty lousy so we'd have to build up our own and use raised beds.  We looked into boxing the beds off with wood but the price added up quick so we opted for cinder blocks which were cheap and have the added bonus of providing mini-planters on all of the boarders.  Since we didn't have time to make our own compost we bought some and mixed it with topsoil.

Before we got to placing down the blocks, I tilled the entire area so that fewer weeds would grow up and so that the deeper rooting veggies could easily get down as far as they wanted.  As you can see below, Doc supervised this process.

After the cinder blocks were in place I mulched in-between to keep weeds down, provide an aesthetically pleasing space, and a cushion for kneeling on while working the ground.  The space on the left side of the photo with the chairs is my mini-garden oasis.

After the area was finished with initial set up we mixed in topsoil and compost into two of the beds for spinach  lettuce, peas, and carrots - all which are cold hardy and can tolerate our April and May nights.  I also added a little compost to the pre-existing soil in the flower bed and installed some wooden edging to contain the soil and add a nice touch.  

Next up... planting (we're already past this but hey I can't keep up with the blog when there's so much work going on)!!!