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The inspiration for my vegetable gardens got here, fairly merely, from my love of cooking and consuming fresh, seasonal produce. For so long as I can bear in mind, I’ve fantasized about with the ability to head out into my yard and choose all of the fresh herbs and veggies for dinner that night time. I needed armfuls of mint, contemporary heads of little gem lettuce (close to not possible to seek out at grocery shops in Austin), and spring flowers to place within the heart of the desk.
As we’ve slowly developed our backyard through the years, we knew that when the time got here, we needed so as to add raised backyard beds for rising greens and herbs. Lastly this previous fall, the timing was proper. Over a pair months, we researched construct our personal DIY raised backyard beds to develop the issues we like to cook dinner with. Our complete household pitched in. The youngsters beloved getting their arms soiled, and it seems that once they participated in planting, they have been extra prone to truly eat the greens that got here from the harvest.
It was a journey that required clearing another plot of land behind our house, leveling a hillside, then building a trio of raised wood beds. And now that it’s done, it was worth every drop of sweat.
Not only do we get to enjoy the edible fruits of our labor—tending to a garden has turned out to be an incredibly nourishing way to incorporate more nature into our day-to-day lives.
Learn on for the step-by-step of how we made our raised backyard beds a actuality.
How you can Construct a DIY Raised Backyard Mattress
Provides wanted to make 3 raised backyard beds:
- White spray paint
- 12 cedar planks
- Rebar
- Battery-powered drill
- Shovel
- 16-20 luggage of soil
- Wheelbarrow
- Drip sprinklers (optionally available)
- Vegetable seeds/seedlings
- 1 cubic yard of pea gravel (optionally available)
1. Clear and Level the Land
On our continuing quest to develop the backyard, constructing these raised beds required us to clear and degree one other space of the house. Since our residence sits up on a excessive hillside, our basis is constructed on a 30-foot retaining wall. So, the acre of land that sits beneath the house is on fairly a slope. Over the previous few years, we’ve been clearing the comb, so we already had an enormous open house the place we needed to put the beds.
Nonetheless, that house wanted to be flattened, so the primary month of labor was spent bringing in filth and including one other terrace to degree out the world the place the beds can be constructed.
2. Map Out the Placement of the Raised Garden Beds
The next step was to map out exactly where the beds would go. Adam used white spray paint to mark out rectangles where each of the three vegetable beds would be placed. We wanted to leave enough room between each bed for a walkway that would fit a wheelbarrow, which would also ensure that each vegetable bed would stay in the sun at different times of day and not create shadows over each other.
3. Build the Frames
Once we knew where the beds were going, we could start building the frames. We decided to use cost-effective cedar planks that are durable (they should last up to 10 years!) and are easier to cut than a tropical hardwood like teak. We designed each of the three rectangular beds to measure 8-feet-by-4-feet. Since our cedar planks were 8-feet long, our wood would need minimal cuts to be the right length, making our lives easier.
4. Bring In Good Soil for Gardening
We filled each of the vegetable beds with 16-20 bags of healthy, nutrient-rich potting soil.
5. Install Sprinklers
Since we know how hot the Texas sun gets between July and September, we installed drip sprinklers to ensure all the plants would get consistent water coverage. Drip sprinklers are pipes that run right under the top of the soil and are more eco-friendly since it deeply hydrates the roots without so much of the water evaporating into air. We have them on a timer so that they get watered regularly and at the optimal time of day.
6. Plant the Garden
Obviously—this is the part we’ve been waiting for! I did tons of reading about what will thrive in Austin’s Zone 8, figuring out that our local weather vacillates from extremely sizzling to occasional arduous freezes within the winter.
I made a decision to commit every of my raised beds to a distinct objective:
- 1 – flowers
- 2 – herbs
- 3 – greens
Initially, I made my plan using the square-foot gardening method and mapped out precisely the place the whole lot would go. After all, it didn’t transform fairly so clear-cut. I ended up shopping for far more crops on the nursery than I’d deliberate (they have been all so stunning!) and I ended up freestyling a bit to make all of them match.
For herbs, I planted parsley, dill, chives, mint, basil, cilantro, thyme, and rosemary, and they thrived. Every week, I’d head to the backyard and cut huge bunches of herbs that I keep in mason jars on the kitchen counter for adding to recipes.
My vegetables required more of a learning curve. Since I planted the first round in the fall, I planted lots of squash which ended up taking up way more room than I’d bargained for, and I didn’t have quite as much room for lettuces as I’d hoped.
As for flowers, my zinnias lasted all the way through October, and I loved having fresh flowers from the garden on our dining table all the time.
I learned so much from the first planting season of our raised garden beds. And even though things didn’t necessarily go perfectly, I really loved the process. I tried not to sweat the small stuff, instead throwing all my learnings into our spring garden. (Which just so happens to be in progress right now!) Follow along on my backyard highlights to see the way it’s going.
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