raised garden bed

I had been wanting a garden for our family since we moved into our house last year. Last year I told myself to wait until this year since I had too much going on at the time, new house and new baby. So, this year, I was determined. I waited awhile for Josh to build it for me, but I finally realized that the poor guy just didn't have time to do things around the house and if I wanted something done then it was going to have to be me.

Not that I really mind. I like doing things myself. It's always fun figuring things out as I go. I borrowed a power drill from a friend and built the frame in 2 hours. Not too bad since I had a couple of little girl helpers.

I bought 6 2x6x8 and had two of them cut in 1/2 for the ends. 

It was quite simple to do. Just a bit heavy for little me.

I also picked up some scrap wood at the store to secure the top frame to the bottom frame. I then covered the grass with lots of newspaper and filled in the dirt, which, by the way, is VERY HEAVY. After I filled in all dirt I had I realized that I needed 8 more bags of dirt. But thankfully Josh was home and dumped that 400 lbs in the garden for me. 

As soon as the garden was filled with dirt, Todd and Kate wanted nothing other than to play in it. Which, I loved! 

I bought plants at the local store instead of doing seeds since I started my garden so late in the season.

One thing, though, I'm not used to black dirt. So, I couldn't tell when the garden needed watering and we lost all of our squash. But just a couple of days ago we went out and bought more squash to put in. And now I'm watering the garden everyday, too! I don't really know what I'm doing but I'm figuring it out as I go. :)

Also, our blackberries are producing this year! They are transplants from my Mom. By the way, they are thornless blackberries, which are the best kind ever for kids. 

And our blueberry plants have produced pretty well for being 2 year old plants. Every few days Todd will say that he thinks that the blueberries need to be picked and comes in with about 10 each time.