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