RAISED GARDEN BEDS IN THE CITY

A couple of years ago, I built three raised beds in the backyard.  Our postage stamp sized city yard has no grass, it's mostly all concrete patio, deck and garage.  There was a small patch of "dirt" in the back corner, where a tree used to be, and so I thought that would be a great place to put a few raised beds.  Since we didn't own the farm at the time and it wasn't on our immediate future radar, it seemed liked the perfect plan. It's an oddly shaped space so I was only able to put in three beds.

A 5'x'5' square, a 3'x'3' square, and a 2'x'3' rectangle.

Last year, with the farm pre-closing stuff going on, and then trying to start the remodeling, not to mention our epic drought, I just let them go.  This year though, since I ran out of time to get a large garden built at the farm, I figured I'd live vicariously through fixing up these three small beds.  So last weekend, I started cleaning them up and getting them ready for planting, it's fun having something else to garden.  I'm going to have plenty of planting to do at the farm, more fruit trees and bushes and flowers and other landscaping plants, so a smaller scale but hopefully productive garden, will definitely keep me busy.

Ichiban Asian Eggplant in a raised bed

Above is the first one I worked on.  It's the 2'x3' one.  I practiced Square Foot Gardening in these beds in seasons past, but this year, I'm just planting a few things we want to grow since I'm getting a late start.  This bed has two Ichiban Japanese eggplants.  I grew one a couple of seasons ago and it was very prolific, producing all summer long.  I figured two in this bed would give us plenty. 



Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato in raised bed

In this bed, which is a 3'x3' square, I put one tomato plant.  It looks kind of lonely, ha, but it's an heirloom Beefsteak tomato.  I grew one a few years back and since it was indeterminate, it got HUGE (and gave us a lot of tomatoes in the process, hoping for that again).  A 3'x'3' is about the right size for it.  I might plant some herbs around the edges just to grow a little something else.

Side note; these are plants I bought that were already grown at a local nursery, not a big box chain.  They are non hybrid, heirloom plants.

I have one last raised bed, the largest 5'x5', and I'm going to get it fixed up this weekend.  Not sure what I'm putting in there, but I'll keep you posted.