I am ALMOST too embarrassed to show you all the beginning of my kitchen garden. I am hoping in about a month or two this space will look completely transformed. I thought it would be fun to show the process though. I decided to start this project simply for better for us vegetables. I have been reading up on GMO's and such and decided that doing it myself was worth a shot. The beds are completely organic and of heirloom variety. This means the seed is original and hasn't been modified. With all our health issues I thought it was worth a shot. Without further adieu here it is...
See? Not too pretty yet, but highly functional. I made the beds myself out of cedar planks. Each board has a slight defect so I got them half off! For this use the "defects" didn't matter. I took a 12ft plank and divided it to make (2) 6ft boards and a 8ft plank to make (2) 4ft boards for each bed. They are 8 inches high. We have space for 3 beds along the back fence. The playset is to the left {or behind me in the below image}. I attached each plank to a . I then laid newspapers at the bottom to discourage any weeds. A thin layer {maybe and inch or so} of pebbles were next. The soil + compost finished them off. I do need to add a few more cages of some sort for the extra tomatoes that I planted. I have some time though.
We bought the compost and soil conditioner locally from Andy's. A nearby friend and I shared truck loads. Mine took about one truck with left overs. That same friend came over and helped grid my beds into 1ft squares. We did tomatoes and peppers from starter plants she did inside. The rest we are trying with seed. Below you can see where each seed is planted. Some are a single seed to a square and some have multiple. I even dedicated the middle bed to watermelons and zinnias which I have yet to plant. I am hoping the zinnias will attract bees & butterflies for pollinating. They will also be great for cutting! This is what I am starting with...
I can't tell you how much fun this project has been. The kiddos have also gotten REALLY into it. I am thinking this is going to keep us busy this summer and will make not having a vacation seem like not quite a big deal. We are probably going to wire fence this area in to keep safe. We get occasional bunnies and a pup that likes to wander. I also think it will help make it feel a little more secret garden like and that will make it extra fun for the kiddos! In the end I am hoping it will look like a very miniature version of this gorgeous kitchen garden...
A girl can dream, right?
