Monday, January 27, 2014

RAISED BEDS WEEKEND PROGRESS


These corners are SO awesome, I can't sing their praises enough.  Now whether they will hold up for years, of course, remains to be seen.  But for now, they were a lifesaver.  I would put three pieces down (U-shape) and screw them together with two brackets and then...


...flip them up on one end, and lay the fourth and final board across the two side pieces and slip the brackets on.  Then I just screwed them in place and it was done.  I could move them like large square wheels and get them to where they needed to be.



While the corner brackets are awesome...the screws they come with don't look very substantial.  So I splurged and bought these "Deck Mate" screws.  They are guaranteed for life against rust and that's important to hold the beds together. 


The hardest part was getting them into the correct position and distance apart, because I couldn't just slide them into place once they were down for fear of pulling up the weed block fabric.  So after some maneuvering and measuring, I finally got them positioned where they needed to be.
Raised bed garden
And here is the view of it all from the front garden gate.  There will be one more row of four beds behind the ones I did this weekend (hopefully, weather permitting, this coming weekend).  The large open space near the front, I already have some ideas for, special planters, etc, and future expansion

One step closer!


24 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you! A little bit at a time, right, ha.

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  2. It looks amazing. What an amount of fruit and veg you will be able to grow.

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    1. Aww, thanks! Ultimately it will be a lot of stuff growing. This first time around, I'm going easy, just using a few of the beds. I have to make the beds now of course to be able to get other parts of the garden area done. Fingers crossed!

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  3. It looks amazing. Soon, they will have all those good veges to make all of you meals. Have a great week & stay warm!

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  4. Very impressive! I can imagine how they are going to look filled to the brim with lush veges. An excellent start for sure.

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    1. Thank you, some more work to go....Thank you very much!!

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  5. will you be living there this summer? cause you are going to have so many veggies you might have to open a farm stand!!! fabulous!

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    1. HA! We will be spending more time there this Summer for sure. Not going to have ALL the beds going this first go 'round. I just have to get them all in place so I can get the other stuff done and finished. Then each growing season I might add a box or two of stuff. Also thinking of making one an asparagus bed, which of course, is a perennial...so stuff like that. We'll see!!! Trial and error, ha.

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  6. I wish I had a couple like those boxes in my yard! I have seen those brackets and they look handy.

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    1. They are SO easy. The only downside is they are a a bit expensive. I was lucky, found them a couple of times on clearance (in the off season) and then an occasional xx% off coupons, or free shipping, etc.

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  7. 1st Man,

    Your boxes are looking good, things are coming along nicely. Do you have a plan on what you're going to plant in each box yet?

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    1. Yep, finalizing it now. not going to fill all of them this first growing season. I don't want to overwhelm myself first, need to start small and grow (no pun intended, ha). Doing the herb bed, then one large bed with tomatoes, and then another pepper variety bed, and another with beans and things like that. We'll see how it all goes. Fingers and toes and everything else crossed, ha.

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  8. Those corners certainly look like a timesaver - and a very orderly garden you are creating there! Can't wait to see those boxes full of greenery :)
    The older I get, the more I try to reduce the weight of the objects I have to move. Now even when I build something fairly small, I usually carry the materials to where the final construction will be located, and build whatever-it-is right on the spot.

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    1. Oh, SUCH a timesaver. Like I said, the only downside of them is the cost, at regular price, a set of four is about $25. But I found them on sale a few times and got other specials. Heck, i've been buying them a couple sets at a time for the last couple of years just getting ready, ha.

      Yep, I'm with ya, I backed the jeep up to the gate and unloaded the wood right into the garden area. Made life much easier, ha.

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  9. I'm jealous of all your open sunny ground. My back yard has so many trees that there's only a small area that I can have a garden. We've even put a raised bed in the front yard for the tomatoes. I'm contemplating another but unless I want it in the middle of the front lawn, I'm running out of space! BTW, for your tomato beds, add some powdered milk to the soil to combat the tomato blight.

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    1. Oh, sun is definitely something we aren't lacking around here, ha. I think we are lucky to have a nice variety of spaces, though a few more 'regular' trees would be ok, ha.

      Powdered milk? Seriously? That's great I love those kinds of tips and advice. Thanks!!

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    2. Just google it. A gardening friend told us about it and we add it every year. Non-fat (tee hee)!

      Plant some spinach and micro greens early. It's amazing how two packets of seeds grow before the heat sets in and you will get more than your money's worth. Plus it's fun!

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    3. Thank you much for the tip!! And yes, I am planning, hoping, for some micro greens and spinach as an early crop.

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  10. I love the raised beds. My hubby made ours without the brackets but it seems that the brackets would be so much easier. I'm also having a love affair with your fence. We so desperately need to put up some fencing but it's so darned expensive that we've just put it off.

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    1. Raised beds are totally fine without brackets, These might not hold up, I have no idea, I hope they do of course, ha. They really did make it SO much easier to put together. You know, if you click on the 'raised beds' tab on the post, you can see last year when we put the first of the beds together and had the fence built. We were late with the fence going up so the garden started way too late.

      The fence was a must have though for us, it needed something to give us an area that we could segregate off and use for garden related things (and to keep is safe from animals). It was an investment, though we think we got a pretty good deal on it. And it hopefully will last for a long time. Fingers crossed! :-)

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