And so it begins....

They look great! Love the added design. They really are very attractive. Great job!

Can't wait to see some pics in a month or two when the soil is full of green!

Have fun!
Jenny

Well here's the final product:



This bench weighs a ton.

And here's a view from the side through some temporary fencing to keep the dogs out.


I need to come up with some thing to enclose these beds but it will have to wait for now. My girlfreind planted strawberries and the dogs grabbed them and pulled them all out. We needed an imediate solution to keep the dogs out. If I was to do this over again these beds would be about 30" above the ground on angle iron frames. If I get my chores done over the summer and this garden goes well I will make frames and get these things off the ground this winter.

I feel the same as you about getting the beds raised. That getting down on the ground business if for the birds and squirrels! Your boxes and potting bench are really nice! Once you see them filled with growing plants it will be worth all the effort you've put into them.

Happy Gardening!
Crystalheart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potting_bench

A Potting bench or gardening table is a kind of workbench used for small gardening tasks such as transplanting seedlings. A basic potting bench has a work surface at bench height, comfortable for a standing person; and storage for potting soil, pots, and tools. The same furniture is often also used to display potted plants, even indoors.



This particular one has a upper shelf for holding potted plants.

willf650 wrote: If I was to do this over again these beds would be about 30" above the ground on angle iron frames.

Hooray another convert!

Two threads you may find of interest:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/general-sfg-talk-f5/tabletops-take-sfg-to-a-higher-level-t41.htm

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/general-sfg-talk-f5/building-a-table-top-sfgsome-ideas-t297.htm?highlight=table+top

A potting bench is the place where you pot up your plants from smaller to larger pots.

I love the bench. Wish I had one. My back could use it.

I have a suggestion: Make a hole about 5-6" circular at one end of it. I saw this on a garden show and its so practical.

You can put your open bag of potting soil underneath and when you are finished potting, just brush the excess soil back into the bag thru the hole. Very easy cleanup.

Great job with the potting bench.

We bought it at Lowes in the garden section. It's plastic, comes in a roll of 50 feet and was in the section with wire mesh (in our store it's in the back of the outdoor section near the back wall). The poles are garden posts and come in a variety of heights.

vfclead
a.k.a. Jennifer
a.k.a. willf650's girlfriend

Nice work on the boxes! I like the "sill" around the perimeter. Good for sitting or leaning. Sorry the dogs ate you strawberries! The potters bench looks beautiful too.

Beautiful job. Well done!

I left town on Thursday for a convention and was suprised and excited to see how much progress was made over 4 days. On top of that our tomato plants (7 varieties) arrived from Burpee while I was gone, so I transplanted them into their spaces as soon as I got home Sunday.

I'm a little confused on cutting off shoots on tomato plans -- should I be cutting off all shoots and leaving just the center stem or leave the strongest stem even if it's not in the center?

Front left = lettuce, other three = tomato



3 squares of Tomatos & 1 of Strawberry



close up of the lettuce -- which leads to question 2 - it was impossible to put just one seed in the space - should I pull all but one seedling or wait until they get a bit bigger to decide which are the weakest and pull those?


more strawberries


Broccoli at the top, pole bean in the center of the bottom left square with red bi-color sweet corn in the bottom left and upper right corners



more pole beans and corn


Broccoli plants -they are getting huge - wonder when we'll see the head growing?

Jennifer, everything is looking great!

I too am interested in the answer to your question on thinning lettuce.

I'm with you Jen. I don't take mine to market so I do not need pretty heads. As it grows I cut out small heads (bundles?) to use in salad. Sort of a thin as you dine plan (salad, not me)

We finally got the trellis built and installed. It's not as straight as I'd like, but I'm sure it'll do just fine.




Box2, now with trellis and strong growth of the tomatos, strawberries, sunflowers & romaine lettuce.


Box 2 - Peas, corn, sweet red pepper & brocolli. I used bamboo poles and twist ties to teepee the beans. The brocolli is our #1 grower so far - wonder when we'll start to see the heads developing?

Lookin' good!

After weeks and weeks of patiently watering and waiting, I was finally able to harvest my first veggie. I introduce to you --- BROCCOLI #1.





#2 and 3 are about 2 weeks behind this sucker in growth and #4 has nary a head on it's massive stalk & leaf growth. No clue why, they were all planted the same day from the same set of transplants bought at the same store. Who knows. All I care about is I can now officially say "I have inherited my mother's Green Thumb!!"

Time to CELEBRATE!!!
Happy BroccoliDay!

vfclead...Good for you having your first crop.
Be happy they are growing at different rates. That spreads your harvest out a bit.

It happened to me with my cauliflower store-boughts last year. Same cell-pack but each one grew at a different rate so we enjoyed cauliflower over a longer period.
I'll bet it tastes delicious.

I'm doing the broccoli dance for you. Woo hoo!

What's funny is I planted the broccoli for my boyfriend (broccoli & beans for him, strawberries & tomatos for me, corn & romaine lettuce & sweet red pepper for us both). I'm not a big veggie eater, especially the green stuff! It would figure that the first thing ready to pick wouldn't be for the person doing all the "care giving" in this garden. LOL

You'd think I'd have grown out of that childhood dislike by now. Oh well....

Last year I swore that I would raise these beds off the ground if I ever did this again. Well since we haven't planted anything yet nows the time. I'm making some stands out of steel to keep my dogs out of them and allow me to mow and trim around them easily. Last year we didn't take into account the dogs playing in the gardens like they did. Apparantly the smeel of compost attracts them. We wound up having to put an ugly fence around the gardens to keep the dogs out. Made mowing around the beds impossible and working in them a pain.

Here's the first of two with two coats of hammered brown paint.


Since they are made of steel and not wood it will give me plenty of room to get the mower and trimmer under them.


I'll make the second one this wee and raise the first bed this weekend.

The base of your beds looks terrific. It should last forever besides being sturdy enough to hold any raised bed you choose.
Good luck and enjoy this year's garden experience.