Building Raised Veggie Beds
- Sarah Valentine Design
- Aug 20, 2020
- 2 min read
When we purchased our small quarter acre with house, it was originally part of a disused quarry, so we had to bring in multiple truckloads of organic compost and soil from Sea-to-Sky Soils and start from fresh. This was a lot of work at first, and we kept wondering what we got ourselves into, but now I realise I was able to design my ‘dream garden’ from scratch.
I convinced the hubby-hero to build 4 raised beds, which he simply constructed with 2x8 untreated fir boards and some MacGyvering with bits and bobs that he had in the garage... we do like to keep things cheap and cheerful!
In the first of the raised beds, my early-spring snow peas are still taking off, as we have been blessed with hot sun interspersed with light rains since May in Pemby here, but I like to fill every corner of my raised planter boxes, so also have leafy lettuce planted with the snow peas, and the garlics I planted last autumn.
In the second box, the broccoli seeds took off and they are growing very well; while waiting for the broccoli to grow, we planted arugula in the bare spots, and not one to leave a space empty, threw in some parsley seedlings my friend down the valley at Lazy Acres Farm grew from seed.
In the third box, we have planted tomatoes that I saved the seeds from organic tomato purchases last summer from Squamish local growers, Republic Heirlooms; a very attractive Black Cherry and juicy Green Zebra.
In the last box, we have planted alternate rows of carrots and beets, with some spinach in as well. The carrots are not doing as well as they usually do, but the beets are looking very leafy with thick tops to them. I think I have to thin some of the carrots again, but sometimes I do like to pull out a small group of carrots sown closely together so that we have a bunch of ‘baby’ carrots. I’ll be keeping an eye on these.
Lastly, to add some colour and potentially keep some of the nasties away, I have planted a border of marigolds, nasturtiums and calendulas around each of the raised planter boxes.
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