My new veggie garden

I have wanted a vegetable garden for quite some time.  However we just don't have the space for one and the soil isn't really that great to grow veggies in.  But I had a plan (!!) and on Saturday DH and I carried out my plan.  At our local hardware store I had see these:
Bunnings had set up a display so you could see what they looked like assembled.  DH and I thought this would be the solution to my veggie garden problem.  When we got ours home and laid it out we realised how big it was - the display was a mini version of the raised bed.  The size is perfect - 2.2 metres long and 1.3 metres wide.  No digging required - just build and add soil - can't be easier!!
So far I have covered the ground with a thick layer of straw and some organic soil.  In early October when I get the mulch delivered I will also buy 1 cubic metre of organic soil to add on top.  This will fill the bed right to the top and then it will be ready to use.   And, no I didn't hurt my back doing this job, DH did lots of lifting for me to make sure my back was ok.
In mid October I will start planning for summer - I'm thinking of tomatoes (Roma and cherry), cucumber, zucchini, radish (these will probably be planted in another pot), lettuce and red capsicum (always expensive to buy).   At the end of summer I will decide if I need to buy another one of these beds or if one will be enough for us. 

~oOo~

We have been eating spinach all winter and this mini spinach is so tasty both raw (in salads) or in hot meals. I like to add spinach to my pasta dishes. Notice in the middle of the spinach a pink flower - that is a Hyacintha that has come up!! Looks so pretty and makes the pot smell nice:)

~oOo~

Two of my camellia's are flowering at the moment and they look so pretty.
My purple pansies are so beautiful, I only wish I had planted many more.
 ~oOo~

Comments

  1. That's really odd! I checked your blog this morning and it said you hadn't posted anything, and now my blog feed says you posted this 14 hours ago!! Something must be up with the blogger feed!! :P

    This is great, Jo! I know you will love having a vegie garden! One thing I was going to say... if you're going to put radish in another pot, you might be able to get started on that right away if you want to, because radish are hardy and don't mind frost. Mine have been in since June and they have been frosted a few times and kept right on growing exhuberantly! :)

    I'm looking forward to seeing how your gardening venture goes! :)

    Another little tip: You can get a head start on your garden before the frosts are over, because frost itself doesn't actually kill plants - it's when the sun hits the frost or if the frost is too heavy and stays around for too much of the day, that it damages the plant. To prevent the frost doing damage, when the temperature rises above frost point or before the sun hits the plant, give it a water to remove the ice and the plant should do just fine. I'm not sure if this works on REALLY heavy frosts, but I know it does work on mild to moderately heavy frosts - Dan's family watered their plants when it frosted in Michigan before the snows came. I would imagine they got pretty heavy frosts there considering how cold their winters are! :) Of course this doesn't work on EVERY plant, but it generally works! The other thing you can do - especially when you have a frame like that around your raised bed, is that you could put plastic or a blanket over the garden each night until the frosts pass, and that will help it grow real well! :)

    Just a few ideas for you! :)

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  2. And are you going to put mulch on top of the last lot of soil to keep the moisture in and cut down on watering? We use sugar cane, which I like coz it puts needed nitrogen (I think it is) back into the soil as it slowly breaks down.
    love,
    Bets

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  3. Yes Bets I will be adding Sugar Cane mulch to the top once every thing is planted. I also have a thick layer at the bottom as well. In the past I used Pea Straw until I discovered it resulted in peas growing which was very annoying!!

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  4. We use pea straw and yes peas grow, but we pick them and add them to the mulch and then it's like a mulch that keeps producing nitrogen! :)

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  5. We have peas from our mulch too lol!
    Free nitrogen to plough back in :-)
    Your raised beds look great!!
    Trish

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  6. Good luck with your new veggie garden Jo - I am betting that it will be a great success! Keep us posted!

    Your flowers are beautiful - you always take such wonderful photos of your flowers!

    Vicki

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