soaphouse's Blog
soaphouse's posts about: raised bed
Apr 18, 2008 | 6:19 AM PST
Tags: raised bed , vegetable garden , veggie , tomato , eggplant , companion planting , seeds , last frost , plan , hostas
I have had a wonderful couple of days in the garden! All the planning that I did over the winter months is starting to come together and since our last frost date has come and gone (April15), I got to start planting!!!! HOORAY!
First thing I did was put in all the annual flower seeds for the bed I laid out around the porch:
It doesn't look like much now, but soon it will have (from back to front) Sweet Pea Vine, 2 Varieties of Sunflowers, Bells of Ireland, Nemophila: Baby Blue Eyes and Sweet Alyssum.
I also had a great helper:
Then, when hubby got home he was kind enough to help me plant and divide all my new hostas! (Its a bit hard to bend over these days at 9 mo preggers) HAH!
We divided up and planted a few different varieties of hostas and put some under the saucer magnolia:
And the rest in the evolving azalea shade bed:
I also moved a couple of hostas from the hydrangea bed over to the azalea bed. This will make for a nice collection and I think they will fill in very nicely. They were all actually easier to divide than I thought and I was able to save a lot of money that way!
But, perhaps the most exciting part of the afternoon was installing the veggie bed plan! Here is a pict of the master companion planting plan:
And the results:
I know, doesn't look like much...I started everything from seeds except the tomatoes, eggplants, bee balm, peppers, and strawberries. I am super excited to see how all of this comes together! Hope the companion system proves to be effective. The only thing that didn't get planted yet are the sweet potatoes. Still waiting on those in the mail. They won't ship them until after May 15th....apparently they only like REALLY warm soil.
The plants that I purchased are as follows:
Tomatoes: Yellow Pear, Husky Cherry Red, and Better Boy
Eggplant
: Black Beauty and Ichiban
Pepp
ers: Mexibell, Gypsy, and Yellow Bell
Strawbe
rries: Quinalt
All of the varieties of seeds can be seen by looking at a previous post and clicking here. I also added a sweet basil plant and Dark Opal Purple Basil to that as well as okra, but I forgot to jot down its variety :(
We finished up just as the sun was setting and I tell ya, it felt SO good! Especially to have this done before I have the baby :)
Now we will just water and wait:
Mar 23, 2008 | 5:22 PM PST
Tags: easter , egg , maple , azalea , lilac , frost , freeze , raised bed , veggie bed , single knock out rose , knockout , creeping phlox
We have had a wonderful Easter weekend in the garden! Yesterday, i was able to sneak away to my favorite local nursery to check out their spring inventory. It was SO exciting! Everything looked so wonderful it was very hard to control myself :) But, I was a good girl and only picked up 2 small single knock outs- hot pink variety and 5 small sized creeping phlox (2 lavender and 3 hot pink).
The knockouts have been on my list for a while. I have been wanting to plant them at the base of the new "sculpture" at the front window seat bed. Not only will they add nice color all season, but they will give some interest to that bed during the winter when all the perennials are dormant:
See them on either side there? I know...they are small now, but luckily those guys are fairly fast growing!
The Creeping Phlox went in the berm in the front yard along side the driveway. I just love the little punches of color and I know they will fill in nicely and provide great weed supression:
That was all done yesterday. Today, after Easter service, we had a wonderful little egg hunt for my daughter in her grandmother's back yard:
She has such a wonderful yard for that and my little girl had so much fun!
When hubby and I got home, he finished up the veggie bed fences - now they are all ready to plant up come April 15th (our last frost date)
Speaking of frost, it is supposed to get down to about 32-34 degrees tonight...not too cold, but enough to make me worry a bit, so I attempted to cover the budding azaleas, my newly planted tree peony, the lilac, and the 3 Japanese maples. I do hope this helps....I guess its worth a try, not sure if I needed to bother but it makes me feel somewhat proactive.
Hope everyone had as nice of an Easter as we were blessed with!
Feb 23, 2008 | 4:46 PM PST
Tags: compost , owl , herron , veggie beds , dogs , raised bed , weeding , weeds , rain , drought
(I hope this post goes through ok...with all the weird stuff going on with the site today...)
The last few days we have had a good steady rain. Great for our drought situation! Of course, I have gotten used to doing something in the yard most every afternoon. So, instead...I had some nice cups of coffee on the front porch and watched the rain :)
One morning, when I woke up...I noticed an owl perched on the fence by the creek. We hear owls a lot around here...and my husbad has named the one we hear, Norbert. Maybe this was Norbert showing himself :) . A little later, I also saw some sort of giant bird walking across the creek (might have been a white herron?) I couldn't catch a picture of him though. Here is a little shot of the owl:
It dried up enough today for my hubby to go get some loads of compost for the newly built veggie beds! Hooray!!!
And, in case there was any question as to the necessity of the chicken wire surrounds:
HAH! needless to say...the doggies had a fun day in the garden too!
While my husband was picking up the loads I also took advantage of the wet ground and did my first (of many, I am sure) spring weeding sessions! It felt good to get that done. We got most of the beds full and just need to finish up one bed. Yeah! Gotta love progress!
Feb 16, 2008 | 1:45 PM PST
Tags: companion planting , veggie , raised bed , flower seeds , compost , curb appeal , front walk , paint finish , faux
My hubby worked so hard for me this weekend and construction of my veggie beds is complete! Hooray! We went from 2 to 5 total. Next year we will add 3 more for a grand total of 8 :)
As you can see: He had a little help too:
Milo approves:
Now, we just have to fill them all with compost and then hubby will build the wire fence panels to keep out the wildlife. I am super excited to implement my companion garden plan that I worked up:
While he was busy working away for me...I tackled a couple of projects of my own.
First, I bermed up some compost around the porch where I plan to sew flower seeds this season. I can't put anything permanent there....b/c we hope to rebuild the deck in the near future. So, I purchased Sweet Pea Flower Seeds, Moon Flower Seeds, Sunflowers, Bells of Ireland and Sweet Alyssum. I got the compost nice and spread and then put up a temporary fence so the seeds can germinate in peace and free of doggie paws. Once they get growing well, I will take up the fence.
Then, I saw an episode of curb appeal that inspired me to try a paint technique on my front walk. I was going to extend this even onto the driveway...but our driveway is REALLY beat up and I think it might have accentuated the flaws instead of hiding them. So, for now...the walkway only got the special treatment.
BEFORE:
And After:
I just got a gallon of porch paint and applied it with a wet sponge. Its subtle, but that was the idea. It just gives it a little somethin'. The biggest difference is the bottom step going up to the door. It had been added by a previous owner and the brick did not match the house, so I did some sponging on it to make it blend better.
I have pretty much gotten all of my to do list done and now it is a matter of waiting for spring to sew seeds and plant plants. Once the weather is forcasted into the 70's for a couple of days...I will spray some weedy spots too.
Feb 10, 2008 | 8:39 AM PST
Tags: brush , raised bed , post hole
Well, we just finished the first stage of the veggie beds. We are adding 3 more and the goal this weekend was to get all the posts in the ground (which really is the hardest part). Normally, we would be at church on a sunday morning, but the wee one has a runny nose and they don't take to kindly to that at the childcare...so, we stayed home and finished up. Yesterday, I dug all the post holes (that was a lot harder than I thought it would be) and while I did that my hubby cut and measured everything...which is definately beyond my capabilities!
Then, this morning, while I drug more brush to the curb...he finished cementing everything in:
Next weekend, we will get the sides and tops on and finish them up. HOORAY! Happy Valentine's Day to me!
Also, here are some shots of the backyard this morning:
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This afternoon, I will finish getting all the creek brush to the curb. I know the yard pickup people will be so relieved! They must be very tired of my huge piles!
