We planted our garden now a few weeks ago, and things are starting to sprout and grow! It is so exciting to see what is growing after weeding and watering and looking after it!
Raised flower beds are a great way to grow vegetables and things like strawberries or pineberries. They do not take up much room and works great in small areas. These style of planters can be built any height and length and out of reclaimed wood (like in our community garden), out of treated lumber, composite board, tin, window wells — the options really are endless! Since we are in a community garden, we are planting things that we can completely remove in the fall, so for this reason we are sticking to vegetables and leaving berries to grow in planters in our backyard!
One downfall of raised flower beds that I must mention are the little critters that take refuge in them. When we first got our garden plot ready in the spring, we noticed all the tunneling the mice created. The ants and other bugs like to dig and live in these as well. We had mice tunnel in our garden plot and under it, but we packed the dirt and added more and have not seen them return yet (but I am sure come fall time they will make their way from the field to the community garden once again)!
In the meantime, let’s check out the garden!
In the small planter, we have multiplier onions growing — these are the best if you like green onions! We also planted 2 rows of lettuce, spinach and we tossed in a few zucchini seeds as well that have sprouted!
We see a few sprouts here and there like carrots and some herbs. Picking those weeds can be hard work so we like to stay on top of it so the weeds do not have a chance to over take the garden!
The potatoes have begun to grow as well! We place the potatoes in a shallow well and then cover them with dirt, so essentially the potatoes are grown on top rather than digging a deep hole to plant them in. Pioneers used to also place the potatoes on top the ground and then hill them. It is so much easier to dig potatoes this way!
We will update our garden throughout the summer and share our successes and our gardening fails! Stay tuned for all our gardening fun.
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours