The Beds are All Made

Last weekend Andy finished making the raised beds and installed them for me. I was so excited to see them all finished. After installing them he made me a template and marked off 1 foot increments on the frame so I could measure out the spacing of the plants. He also made a support board for me that I can use during planting and harvesting so I can easily lean into the bed without damaging the plants or compacting the dirt. My man is so awesome!

Here are the finished beds by the fence and near the rhody tree. There are 5 beds in total which are 4'x8' each. This picture was taken from inside the guest bedroom (sorry for the bit of window glare on the left side of pic).



Here's the first 3 beds with the seedlings all planted.

A closer look at bed #1. This bed contains 12 tomato plants of several different varieties, basil, 6 peppers (2 each of yellow, red, and green), and 8 eggplants.

Bed #2 has two rows of carrots (haven't sprouted yet, but are sowed), parsley, green beans (bush - blue lake), and cucumbers off to the far right.

Bed #3 has 2 rows of broccoli, 2 rows of beets, 1 row of cabbage, 1 row of califlower, and 1 row of bok choy.

A wider view of the 2 beds near the house and the rhody tree.

Ellie inspecting bed #4 - the lettuce. She's on varmit partrol! Bed #4 has onions, mixed lettuce, broccoli rabe, and 2 butternut squash.

Bed #5 - the squash bed. This has yellow summer squash (Zephyr) and Zucchini (Cashflow). Both of which I grew from seeds that I bought from Johnny's.

Around the back of the house near a huge holly tree is the pea bed (which are doing great - surprisingly so - and has lots of flowers!) and an empty bed near the bulkhead in which I'll plant potatoes. This area actually gets a good amount of sun even though the holly tree appears really close in this picture. The sun sets in the direction opposite from the tree so it doesn't shade the plants.

Ellie near the future potato bed. I bought potato seeds from Gurney's which are expected to arrive this Monday. Hopefully I'll have a late summer/fall crop. Ellie had just finished chasing a chipmunk and is all wired up - love my little terrier!

Another view for you so you can get some perspective.

Yet another view... On the left is the fence where the 3 beds are. To the right are the 2 beds by the rhody tree. Look at that lush green grass! Andy is so proud especially considering that he started with a mess this spring. His hard work has paid off.

Along the fence to the left of the beds is a peony bush that is ready to burst forth with flowers as well as a clematis vine growing upwards towards a birdhouse. Right after that is our small berry patch where about 20 little strawberry plants are and two baby blueberry bushes reside. At the end of that area is a butterfly bush, lavender plant, and then another holly, which is out of the picture below but you can see it in the picture above. The bird house in this area is prime digs. It's occupied every spring - usually by either a titmouse or chickadee family. Right now there's a chickadee nesting in it, but a few weeks ago a titmouse was nesting. Seems as soon as one bird family moves out another moves right in. I'm awful at taking pictures of birds so I don't have any to show you, but the chickadees are in there - drives poor Ellie nuts as she sits underneath the bird house and barks like crazy.

Well that's my tour. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll post more pictures as things progress.