Building A New Garden Using Raised Beds
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Building A New Garden Using Raised Beds

Sarah

A month into our new place I finally found the batteries for our push lawn mower (and ancient Greenworks), which was….something desperately needed.

Our new place is almost nothing but lawn (oh yay) and we were looking very unkempt. The rain this spring has led to very lush lawn, which then gave a place for these annoying gnat like flies to hide in, that swarm on warm days.

As I pushed that awful broken down mower, it gave me a lot of time to think about where to put a garden. Having a month here, I have had time to watch the sun shift. My original idea, behind the house, doesn’t really feel like it will be a good choice after all. It only gets sun in the afternoon for a few hours, and is in the shade by the house by 5 pm, and is sloped downhill in general. It’s also in an area that holds the water better, so the grass grows deeper back there. There is a seasonal emergency creek that divides the properties here, in case of heavy rain, and we can’t build anything within a certain distance, so I realized that a garden there might just have far too many issues.

(The trees in the mid right of the photo below are just above the creek area)

Not long after this, my awesome neighbor offered to mow the rest of our lawn on his ridie. The worst parts – super thick and heavy down by the creek. He saved me at least 6 hours of mowing and many charging of those batteries. By the next time I need to mow, we should have the flail mower on the tractor, and it won’t be hard.

Instead, there is an area to the left of the house that is nearly flat, dry and hard packed. Not great for in ground, but raise beds? Yes. Perfect. It needs a tree taken out (an unattractive pine tree), and it gets nice sun exposure.It is in the sun by mid morning, and holds sun till well past dinner time.

It’s also more importantly, mostly flat. It’s on very hard pack land, so not good for an inground garden at all. We also have rock seams around the upper parts, and I am sure under this area it has lots of rock buried. So, great for raised beds!

I will have to work out water for the site, but I think it will work well over time.

The bed will have pro farm/garden fabric laid down, to ensure weed free growing, and to block rodents as well I am considering laying under that hardware cloth. It will be properly fenced in, as we do have some deer, though they keep to the edges, near the farm a bit away from us. No need to offer an all you can eat buffet though.

The goal is to have a garden big enough to have a greenhouse in the center, with beds around it, and pots as well. With walking space between the beds, that I can line with chipped wood to walk on. Unlike the last 7 years, I want/need this to look like I planned it, and have it nice looking as it will be visible from the road.

This is the start of the new garden – it will be major work – but beyond worth it.

I have to do something. The container garden is crazy down on the patio – I can’t help myself. I love plants way too much. It encourages me to get moving on the project.

The raised beds:

In the past years, and last 3 properties, I was more about just having beds and not the look. So I would use a hodge-podge of materials. Reclaimed pavers, cinder blocks, felled trees. Whatever I could source, preferably for the lowest cost. This time I want them to match. It pains me to spend the money – but I want it nice.

I have been using grow bags on the patio this spring, and they work pretty well, so I was intrigued to find that I could source grow bags that line metal raised beds. And they are compartments, so you can grow things like mint, and keep them from growing under and taking over. They are 4 feet by 4 feet and a foot high. If you are using 8 by 4 foot raised beds, you can fit two of them in.

I picked up a twin pack of 8 by 4 by 1 foot beds for $69.99 from Amazon to try out, to see if I liked the look, were they durable and such. They have a rod in the center for stability.

The grow bags I picked up (I ordered two packs of them). They were $19.99 for each two pack. They are the same felt materiel as most grow bags are. The compartments are 2 feet each, giving you 4 compartments per bag, or 8 total in an 8 foot raised bed. They can seem overwhelming when you open them up, but once filled and in a frame, do just fine.

So not square foot gardening, but 2-square foot gardening!

Why use liners?

There are a couple of reasons to use liners:

  • Soil stays in the bags and doesn’t leak out over times as it settles (which happens in the raised beds).
  • It offers weed protection, from coming up from below. Too often (and me included) it’s easy to lay down cardboard and think you won’t have weeds in your beds because of that. Well, you won’t the first year. But after? Eventually grass comes up and so does dandelions, thistles and more.
  • It helps hold in moisture.
  • It controls plants with compatibility issues – such as peppermint, lemon balm, well honestly ALL plants from the mint family. It keeps their roots from spreading everywhere.

I ended up buying more.

With the risk of China tariffs, I went back and bought more, to prepare for the garden. It’s going to be done, so might as well get ready!

I’ll post an update once I start the building of the garden – first I need to get any potential utilities flagged so I know where they are, since I will be putting posts into the ground.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affilate links.

~Sarah

A Simple Raised Bed Concept For A Family Of Four
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

A Simple Raised Bed Concept For A Family Of Four

Sarah

Social media does have a positive side—and that is giving one ideas to work with. I saw this one over the winter and liked it. It’s simple and one that most people could follow. Tiny Garden Habit posted it, and if you are looking for articles on small scale growing, this is a great place to waste some time reading.

I would base it in the beds being 8 feet long by 4 feet wide, as the illustration doesn’t precisely tell one that information (the downside of social media is it isn’t always deeply informative). It is the standard for size in raised beds.

5 raised beds would fit easily in most suburban backyards, leaving room for kids and a dog to play.

The key in it is using square foot planting. High density planting.

With proper watering, high density works in using less water, but also in controlling weeds. It takes planning, especially if you pick things to plant that need to be trellised. You will need to watch the sun, and how it moves across your land – so that anything tall is in the back.

But this can inspire one to get growing, even though they might feel that they don’t “have the room” to have a garden. All you need is just enough room to move around the beds to weed, water and harvest. It doesn’t have to sprawl a lot.

Do you need to grow what is shown? Of course not. You should grow what you like to eat. If you hate cilantro, grow parsley or celery instead.I myself prefer to grow my herbs in large pots, by themself. But that is me, and I also like letting my plants grow big, as I cut off them often. Most people only need one parsley plant per family, not a row.

Change the flowers (though they have a beneficial side, to deflect certain insects). Instead of Marigolds, grow Calendula or whatever grabs your fancy.

The top bed would need a cattle panel or a trellis to grow up on, placed in the middle of the bed. Or grow bush varieties to save space – and the need to build a trellis.

The key is to plant seeds (and actual plants) far more densely than you are used to doing. Ignore the recommendations on the seed packages. You can thin out as needed (like beets or carrots). Peas grow well when crowded, I have found – and if you grow bush peas versus climbing types, they grow faster and take less room.

Start with plants (which you can grow in a simple greenhouse or buy) for produce such as tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, and onions. You will be able to space them accurately and time them better to the last frost date in your grow zone.

I would not plant strawberries in a raised bed like this—they should have their own bed or be in containers, sprinkled around the garden – if your yard has a fence you can put plant hangers on the posts, and hang pots up easily. They are space hogs in raised beds and invite slugs and snails in. I would double up a favorite veggie or plant some summer squash there (did you know you can grow it upright on a cattle panel?).

One last tip? Do not plant sunflowers with other items, no matter how tempting it can be to plant a back row (I get it, it is pretty). However, sunflowers can and will leach out and cause any other plant nearby to not grow well, or at all. It wants to reach the sun, and it does it efficiently. Consider planting it along a fence line, far at the back, by itself. Where it can grow happily.

~Sarah

Grow This: West Virginia Garden Challenge – Update 1
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Grow This: West Virginia Garden Challenge – Update 1

Sarah

Two weeks have passed since I planted our seeds for the Grow This: West Virginia Garden Challenge in Shenandoah Junction, WV. (First post was on April 11th)

And so much has happened in my container garden out back! The warmth came, spring kicked on, and everything is popping.

Cucumbers starting up.

Cucumber starts potted up in a 5 gallon grow bag (next to bush peas). We shall see how they grow this year – a grow bag isn’t the most ideal, but we can do it.

Mesclun Lettuce.

I moved about half outside so far. It will grow quickly in the coming weeks, and be ready to harvest.

Chives starting to sprout.

Potted up. Chives, like many herbs, start slow and tiny, but around the Summer Solstice in June get big. Chives I look at as a two year project. The first year is the getting there. The second year is when they are a ready to go plant, that will grow on its own.

Now it’s time for nature to keep everything growing. It’s hitting the 80s today, and was mid 70s for days – the nights cool off, but are still in the high 50s to mid 60s.

Yes, I am toying with the last frost date here is April 30th (and we shall see in the coming years how real that is) – but with it being an entire container garden this year, if there is a drop at night, and none have been predicted for the next week that are worrisome – I can pick up all the grow bags and haul them into the greenhouse and into the basement, if needed.

~Sarah

Blender Gluten-free Cottage Cheese Blueberry Muffins
Clean Living · Recipes

Blender Gluten-free Cottage Cheese Blueberry Muffins

Sarah

3 weeks into our new place, I have found most of the kitchen boxes and have finally been cooking and baking. It’s so jarring when you can’t cook like one is used to. The movers put my blender in the basement, because that’s totally where it belonged….

An easy muffin recipe is what I was thinking of, that would have fiber rich oats and fresh blueberries, which are just coming into harvest in the United States in the south. As a base recipe this would work with chocolate chips and other flavors of extract.

If you like a smooth texture, run the oats thru the blender first, then proceed. I prefer a rustic texture so processed with the wet ingredients.

Blender Gluten-free Cottage Cheese Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup cottage cheese
  • ½ cup pure maple syrup
  • ¼ cup avocado oil
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 cups rolled oats (gluten-free if needed)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp fine sea salt
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ cup fresh blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° and line a 12 count muffin tin with liners, preferably metal or parchment paper.

Add all ingredients except for the blueberries into a blender, process until smooth. Stir in 1/3 cup blueberries.

Divide between the cups (about a ¼ cup batter per muffin).

Top with the remaining blueberries on top.

Bake for about 18 minutes, until golden on top.

Let cool on rack. Store sealed, eat within 2 days for best taste.

Makes 12 muffins.

~Sarah

The Cottage Cheese Sweet Potato Meat Bowl
Clean Living · Recipes

The Cottage Cheese Sweet Potato Meat Bowl

Sarah

The Cottage Cheese Sweet Potato Meat Bowl – that is a lot of words for a recipe that isn’t really a recipe. More lots of fresh ingredients chopped up and served bowl style – and it all comes together.

But it’s so good. All the flavors come together and fill you up nicely. The sweet potatoes really contrast with the meat and the cottage cheese does work. Really well.

It’s high protein as well, gluten-free and somewhat keto (I don’t demonize vegetables as being “bad”. Ever. Unless it’s Okra. Lol.)

Cottage Cheese Sweet Potato Meat Bowl

Ingredients:

  • 5 sweet potatoes (hand size, not too thick)
  • 1 large sweet onion
  • 1 to 1¼ pounds ground turkey or beef
  • 16-ounce container full-fat cottage cheese
  • 2 large avocados
  • Avocado oil
  • Fine sea salt
  • Other spices, as desired

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Peel and trim the sweet potatoes, cut into bite size pieces. Toss with a bit of oil and salt, spread out on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for about 35 minutes, until tender and deliciously brown.

Meanwhile, add a bit of oil to a saute pan. Add in the meat.

Chop the onion, add to the pan, and cook till the meat is done, over medium-high heat. Season to taste – I used lower sodium Old Bay liberally.

Divide the potatoes between 4 shallow bowls, then the meat. Place a quarter of the cottage cheese in each bowl, and half an avocado sliced on top.

Now then, top it however you’d like. For the boys, they got some cheese added. And then I drizzled on fry sauce on top – and that was perfect.

Serves around 4.

FTC Disclaimer: This post contains affilate links to products we used.