What a difference a thousand miles makes. In Oregon, the garden (and weeds) was growing like crazy by the end of May; here in Alberta it’s only just warmed up enough to take a chance at planting outside. We were too busy this year to start seeds indoors, so we had to wait until we could sow directly, which we started yesterday!
Here is one of 2 tub planters my mother in law wanted close to the house so she could tend them with minimal walking:
And here’s the progression of one (of hopefully 3) raised bed hubby and I built yesterday. The (extremely insanely hard packed) clay soil here isn’t so good for direct planting. We used scrap wood left over from building our house (also a DIY endeavor).
First frame layer down and leveled. Sort of.
Three layers built and ready for supports.
Supports and landscape fabric added.
A layer of gravel for drainage.
A mix of “homegrown” well ages manure and dirt from the previous veggie garden filled the rest of the space.
I didn’t get seeds planted yesterday but that will come soon. In this one will go peas, onions and other TBD veggies. Apart from the raised bed(s), we’ll also have either scrap wood or tire “boxes” to build upwards, for potatoes.
A fun comparison: here’s a post from March 22, 2008 with my first garden’s progress in Salem, Oregon (and my adorable little guys in shorts! they were in snow pants for another month here!) :)
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