My new favorite reality show, The Garden, is taking place right in my own backyard. I spent the few hours the Hubs was home dumping the baby on him so I could get outside before the rain came to get my first raised bed planted. I did and it was beautiful. Let's recap the first few episodes for everyone out there who couldn't tune in...because they weren't in my yard.
Day one had me outside building a 3x6 raised bed out of redwood. Thankfully, we had purchased a new power drill not too long ago that had enough power to get the job done. The old cordless that used to be my best friend crapped out on the first screw. Once the frame was built, I lined the bottom with chicken wire. Let me tell you that if you have never worked with chicken wire before, it is quite a
funny site. My forearms reminded me to tell you to wear long sleeves and gloves when handling the stuff ...I should probably get a tetnus shot...
Day two had the girls out there with me to level off the ground to set the bed in the pre-approved spot. It took about an hour of hard digging since our dirt is a rocky compacted clay type dirt that is basically like a chunky cement. After that hour, the girls were ready to call it a day. Little gardeners they are not.
Day three had me and my gardening book outside once again to move 36 cubic feet of good black soil into the empty bed . It was hard work since I am still on restriction from my C-section 4 months ago. I'm not supposed to lift more than 25 lbs. so the fifty pound bags of soil were a bit much. I had to rig up all kinds of assists from dollies to carts to get the bags out of the garage, down the steps and into the backyard. It took a while and boy am I tired today, but I did it. Hopefully that insane amount of work will result in the veggies I harvest being about 20% tastier.
After the soil was in the bed, I got on with the planting. Two paste tomatoes, a cherry tomato, one red and one yellow bell pepper, a globe basil and about 20 red onions make up the bed. I have to say, seeing the cages go over the tomatoes and the onions all in their pretty little rows made me smile. If I can keep them alive for the next few weeks, we should be eating pretty well this summer. No promises, I don't have a great track record with plants. But I'm determined.
Another bed will be made soon to house pole beans, carrots and possibly strawberry. Though I may put the berries in their own bed and give that space to some cucumbers for pickling. We'll see.
All in all, Cold Hands Farm is officially up and running. Unless you count fish as a farm animal, then it's been going for a while now.
My finished bed! I'm a proud Mama!
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