Family Project - Part One

We're starting a little family project here on Snickelfritz Lane.

I've been wanting to try to do a garden for awhile now, but I have somewhat of a black thumb. I have trouble keeping houseplants alive - ivy to be exact. Yeah, I know, supposedly you can't kill ivy, but I did.

A few weeks ago I went to a seminar on "Instant Organic Gardening". The master gardener giving the presentation is a big fan of raised bed gardens. Here in the Carolinas our soil is mostly red clay so not much will grow in it. But if you start with a raised bed with rich soil (and no weed seeds), the seeds or plants are much more likely to grow.

My dad is an awesome gardener. He's actually had two gardens for as long as I can remember. He grows tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, strawberry, beans, peppers and more. Fletcher loves visiting and "helping" in his garden and always asks PawPaw about his garden when he talks to him on the phone. Fletcher is at a great age to really help and enjoy the process.

So part one of the project is building the raised bed. We left this part up to Kevin since he is good with tools. The bed is 3' X 8' and it is made out of cedar. We'll fill this bed with "dirt" -- a mixture of compost, sand and fertilizer. Then we will put in our spring plants. For the spring we are going to try strawberries, carrots, onions, broccoli and a buttercrunch leaf lettuce. These are all things that do well in this area and we like to eat all of them! We are a little worried about deer and rabbits, but we are reading about remedies to keep them out. The good thing is that with a bed this small we can also just put a netting material over them if the pests get too bad.

Here are a few pictures of Kevin building the bed. He did mention to the neighbors that he was a little worried that his wife was having him build a box that was just big enough for him to fit in. HA!




This is where it will go in our backyard. We had to find a spot where it will get 6 hours of sun per day.

Stay tuned for our progress. . .