the finished product

Finally, after a long pause, I'm back growing vegetables. Over the last couple of weeks I was able to get the help of some very skilled friends and built a raised bed vegetable garden in the style I had been planning, which is 24 inches tall, as I had seen at Persson's Nursery in Pasadena.

While the work is completed, the soil is in and the seeds just started germinating and everything is awesome I have to say that building this raised bed, which is five feet by 16 feet, was not only much more expensive than I expected but also much more work.  The remaining beds will be simpler...

green onion seedlings

carrot seedlings

Wood ($6/foot if you go with redwood), soil ($25/cubic yard for planter box mix, plus $100 for delivery and $60 for a guy from home depot to move it from where the driveway where the delivery truck dumps it to the planter in the backyard). $200 for the irrigation.

So for the next four boxes I plan to shrink the height to 12 inches or maybe even six. My soil in the backyard is great for growing veggies so it's a bit crazy to be buying soil. One reason I wanted the tall beds was to avoid the weeds but you know what - you knock them out before you build with an herbicide and after that you use barriers such as cardboard and lots of weeding.

Here are some photos of the seedlings.  I planted a few kinds of tomato, swiss chard, beets, carrots, green onions, jalapeno pepper, poblano pepper, string beans and basil.

seedlings bought at the farmers' market: tomato at left and string bean at right

View of the first raised bed with irrigation installed

Back in the Garden

raised bed made of douglas fir, before staining

Dump truck delivers five cubic yards of soil in the driveway

emptying my pickup of one cubic yard of soil