beginner gardening – The Carolina Farmhouse

This weekend, we got to work on our garden and this meant: building raised beds! We had planned to complete all of them, or at least get the supplies for them, but with lumber prices being way higher and our budget being tight…we decided to just get the supplies to build two beds. One for the onions I need to get in as soon as possible and the other for my lettuce I’m starting from seed soon.

One way we made the beds more affordable was to buy cedar privacy fence pickets. They were about $3.50 a piece, so way more than we were expecting but also not ridiculous. We used 2×4’s to create four “legs” on each end to put into the ground the level the bed.

Chris did a great job assembling the beds…especially considering we didn’t have plans for how to do these. He just made it up as he went and as usual it turned out great! The area we chose for our new garden is the most level in our yard, but it’s still downhill slightly, so I was excited to see what it looked like once he leveled the beds. Much more pleasing to the eye than the wonky way my other beds last year were laying. ha

After the bed was leveled, it was time to fill ‘er up! We used a soil combo recommended by one of our favorite youtube channels Hollis and Nancy’s Homestead. Its cow manure, peat moss, and soil. We used top soil from Lowe’s (and got the other two from there too). We aren’t planning on buying soil from the store for all of the beds because its EXPENSIVE. But we needed to just get these two done and it didn’t kill our budget in small quantities. We plan on finding bulk soil from a local farm for the next ones.

I used cardboard boxes to line the bottom to keep grass from growing through. I did this last year and it worked great. And it eventually decomposes so the plants can grow through it if they so choose. Then we added some limbs from the tree we cut down. It will take a while for those to decompose, providing lots of organic matter as food for the plants throughout the next few years.

We added some leaves from our pile we’ve been saving since the Fall. And then we added our soil mixture on top of that. And we were done with the first bed!

We didn’t have time to build the second one due to it starting to rain, but I’m hoping to get my onions in the bed by tomorrow. This is my first year growing onions and I’m nervous but hopeful I won’t screw it up too bad. ha

I’m so excited to have one bed down and ready to go! Gardening season cannot get here fast enough!

Check out our vlog of building the beds today.

Last year I miraculously overcame my “black thumb” (get it, instead of green thumb) and actually managed to not only keep my ferns alive, but also grew plants for my garden from seed and they produced fruit! You don’t know what an accomplishment that is for me! ha

I fell in love with gardening and have since been dreaming and planning for this years garden. I already have my seeds and Chris even helped me draw up a sketch for where everything is being planted.

But what I’m super excited about is we are moving our garden to a different location and fencing it to keep the chickens and dog out of it. Last year my raised beds were sitting on a slope (I know rookie mistake) and every time it rained, the water would pull out soil from underneath and by the end of summer my raised beds had about half the soil they originally had in them. So my reasons for moving the garden are mainly to move to a flatter part of the yard.

The other reason is I want a larger garden (I had three small beds last year) and since most of our yard is shaded, the only spot was in the corner by the carport. We will have to cut down a dogwood tree that is there, but once that’s down it should be in full sun for most of the day. (in the above picture the garden will be going in the left corner)

So two weeks ago we began what I like to call “phase one.” It sounds way more exciting than it is, but basically we just put the fence up. ha

We did a matching picket fence like the one around the rest of our yard and Chris is going to work on finishing the gate this week (in all of his spare time ha) and eventually we are going to do a pretty arbor above the gate. I also picture some string lights hanging across the entire garden. Ahhhhhhh.

My vision is the do raised beds starting at the blueberry bushes (along the carport) and go all the way around to the gate. I will also do a few circle raised beds in the center and use gravel of some sort over the grass.

I am so excited not only for gardening season, but to have a designated space that can’t be attacked by animals or small children. ha I will keep you guys updated as we continue through the “phases” and get this baby ready for Spring planting!