A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other peoples pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!
Check out the incredible garden Heidi from Vancouver Island is growing:
I am a long time gardener. We live on a 1/2 acre and have super sandy/gravelly soil, so after fighting with this for years, we started building raised beds. My husband put in automatic watering with soaker hoses and some mini sprinklers, so it is nice to not have to worry about watering all of the raised beds located all over the yard. The garden in the front is doing well because of our decision to use fall rye for the past 3 years, so we will leave this one as an in ground garden. I can’t believe what a difference it has made to the soil to put the fall rye in.
We have a fairly large family {5 kids} and are growing our own produce because we love to garden, but also because it costs a lot to feed 7 people with organic produce.
You can see from how dry the lawn is that we have very poor soil and a lot of trouble keeping things watered. This is one of the main reasons we started making raised beds.
Pictured above is the back garden that we converted into raised beds. There is a fence because we have very friendly rabbits in our neighborhood. Our newest friendly creature is a raccoon that ate all of our Beauty Plums! We have a live trap, and have relocated 3 raccoons this spring, but the last one doesn’t seem to want to go! In this bed, we have lemon cucumbers, spaghetti squash, onions, leeks, celery, peas, bush beans and Warba potatoes that I am going to harvest any day now! Surrounding the garden is a jungle of raspberries that love our soil {I think that they are the only thing that loves our soil}. This was an excellent year for raspberries!
We also have a bunch of fruit trees, some more berries like blueberries and currants, and have recently planted blackberries and kiwi. This year I am trying some winter gardening. I showed you the Brussel sprouts, and have also started cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower and a flat of peas for a fall crop.
And, that is my garden! Thanks again for the inspiration, Mavis,
Heidi
If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:
- Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so, show me some picture of how you are going about it.
- Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
- Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
- Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
- Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.
If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.
Go HERE for the official rules.
WendyinCA says
Mavis & friends, I have a question about raised beds. Are you supposed to dig out the soil underneath them, or do you just put them on the ground and add soil? It doesn’t seem possible to me that the soil is deep enough in raised beds. Inquiring minds want to know. 🙂
Heidi says
Hi Wendy,
When we put in our raised beds, we put cardboard over the grass to kill it, and then filled in the soil. Our theory was that if the roots wanted to go deeper, then they could go down into the regular soil that was below the beds. I’m not sure what the experts say, but this has worked for us. Our one experiment with potatoes also worked in the raised beds, when I dug them out, I noticed that the potatoes weren’t as deep as the bed (in our case, 10 inches) they were only about 8 inches deep.
WendyinCA says
Thanks, Heidi! My soil is really bad (lots of clay), but I’m thinking it probably won’t matter. Appreciate your reply! 🙂
Lisa Millar says
Beautiful! Such a lucious space you have created! Very inspiring.
We have good soil, but we have extended into the lawn area a bit, so I am a bit tired of battling the weeds etc, so going to try a couple of raised beds this upcoming season.
It would be very exciting to wander through your garden to see whats ready to eat!
Janice says
Great job on the garden Heidi! I live on Vancouver Island as well and am constantly fight the rabbits – 5 born in my raised bed this year – as well as squirrels, racoons and those dreaded deer….. I took a one day course on year round gardening with Linda Gilkeson, from Saltspring Island and would recommend to anyone that they should check out her web site for lots of great information, especially if you live on Vancouver Island or in Washington State.