The Humble Homestead - Garden Beds on a Budget

I had my first set back with the garden this season. Some unforeseen financial burdens popped up and I decided I just couldn't spend the amount I wanted to on the dream garden bed. Before I brought this up to Kevin he sent me a post on Marketplace for two brand new in the box garden beds. It was meant to be... They were cheaper than the one I was going to get and bigger, also there were two, so we went for it. Picked them up from a nice lady that had just ordered too many, and I got right to putting them together. I even got some of the kids to help out here and there.

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Putting the boxes together took a little patience (Like the, "Kids, just give me a second!" kind of patience) in the beginning, but once I got the hang of it they went together pretty quick. The kit came with gloves to protect my hands, landscape fabric, plant tags, screws and extra pieces to make the beds different ways. Thankfully I had a mallet from a previous project that ended up working great and saved a lot of time.

Putting the top and bottoms on the panels and getting the screws in were the most time consuming parts. But again, once I got the hang of it, it went pretty quick.

And there you have it! The raised garden beds we ended up with are working out great so far and I'm just so thankful we were still able to get any at all this year. Kids not included.

Next we had to figure out where we wanted to put them, something I had been thinking about for two years and still didn't have a definitive answer for. But Kevin offered his opinion and we found a spot that we thought would work best. We have a lot of gophers in our yard so I decided to put chicken wire under the garden beds since hardware cloth was out of the budget so hopefully it works. We put the landscape fabric in next and from there it was an accumulation of what I learned from my research and what I could actually get my hands on. We live on an open lot so we don't have any large trees which means there are no sticks or leaves lying around. So I phoned a friend! We have a great friend that lives nearby with plenty to spare. The kids and I went to grab sticks but ended up also finding some nice composting leaves on the ground as well. Brought our haul home and turns out the garden beds are larger than I thought and it barely looked like we added anything, oh well, it will work out. Adding the sticks and partially composted leaves will help add nutrients to my garden beds in the years to come. It was time to add the dirt next.

And now, a story about a dirt pile;

The first summer we lived in our house we had to put a sidewalk in along with the rest of our neighborhood. The sidewalk crew set up in front of our house since we live on a dead end, which was the best free entertainment my kids have ever had. Dump trucks, bobcats, piles of rock, cement trucks coming and going, it was great! The crew used to wave at the kids nonstop and it didn't seem to bother them especially since my kids also loved the idea of bringing them fresh baked cookies. Anyways, when they were done for the summer and getting all of their things picked up and hauled out, we were on our way out of town and I happened to notice a very nice looking pile of dirt still sitting in the road. Unlike me, I jumped out, ran over and asked what the fate of the dirt may be and the guy shrugged. I asked if he wouldn't mind just leaving it behind and by his expression, I'm pretty sure it made his day not having to load it up. So there it was, I had this nice pile of dirt. Got a friend with a bobcat to move it onto our lot and it sat there for two years until we were finally ready for it now. Hoping the two year wait helped flush out any chemicals that may have been sprayed/used on it. It filled both garden beds, finished up filling the third and we still have some to spare!

The end

Thankfully we were able to fill our beds without having to purchase any dirt. This was so helpful in making our budget friendly garden beds.

Now you would think this was the time to start planting, but I love square foot gardening, since it just looks so nice and seems to make it so much easier, so I got the string, sticks and measuring tape and got it all mapped out. I also wanted to go grab some organic compost, but again that pesky budget got in the way and I couldn't find any cheap enough.

Ready to plant. Our started seedlings are very very tiny and I'm a bit nervous for them, but I'm hopeful they will take off now that they have fresh air and sunshine. I may be going out to get some started plants. (Check out the seedling blog post here) Our second garden bed I direct sewed carrots, lettuce and radishes. Gardening with kids can be challenging and makes things take a little longer, but it is so worth it! They enjoyed watering and only argued a little over who got to water which plant. They are excitedly waiting for the first harvest.

There was one wooden raised garden bed here when we moved in right next to the deck and we planted our herbs in there. I'm looking forward to drying our own herbs this year for the first time, so I will be learning more about that over the summer. Hopefully they actually grow and I will have something to dry.

We also found some asparagus and strawberries from a local nursery. The man at the nursery was confident we could plant these directly into the ground without killing them or having them get eaten by the gophers, bunnies or deer, I'm not so sure. They most likely wont produce for a couple of years and we are hoping they will spread and we will have many more plants form them. I had also started some huckleberry plants inside so we planted those right into the ground as well. Doing some research on huckleberry plants has been interesting, there are very mixed reviews. So hopefully we like them and have some positive feedback once they can be harvested in August.

**I would love to hear about your gardens, or any advice for mine. What did you plant? What tricks did you try out? What are trying new this year?

Since I am such a fashionista (extreme sarcasm..) I have to share my new favorite gardening shirt. I love it since it is LONG, soft and affordable! I have had a hard time finding a long shirt that will stay down when I bend over for some reason. bonus, the kids love it, they think its so funny. I will be getting more for sure and you can grab yours here.

~Happy gardening!~