New Raised Bed Gardens for Spring

Its Spring time and we have 4 new small raised bed gardens for vegetables replacing a third of our urban back lawn. Over the past couple of years the shade from very tall 100 year old cedar trees keeps about one quarter of the vegetable garden in full shade and another quarter is partial shade. The sunny section remaining is for strawberries, a few greens and as many tomatoes as possible ... and the 6 x 8 greenhouse.

The main veggie garden - with multiple growing areas

Building the Raised Bed Frames

We decided to increase the veggie garden by turning half of the only sunny part of the back yard lawn to 4 raised beds. It is flat, versus the current vegetable gardens with four gardening levels due to the Steep Slope.

With the snow still on the ground we measured where the four 4 x 4 foot beds would be best in the sunny side of the yard. The wood was purchased, cut to size and stained in a workshop inside. Special thanks to my handy husband.

Wildflower garden — The multi level veggie garden is hiding behind the wildflowers

Raised Bed Gardens - Preparing the Soil

We had to wait for the frozen ground to thaw before we could move the frames outside for placement and with a few record breaking sunny days in early March the beds were in place. The longest part of the procedure was :

Removing the sod (in 8 to 12" squares) into a wheelbarrow
Loosening the soil underneath with a fork
Replacing the sod (upside down) with about 6 inches of soil attached plus a couple of worms
A layer of home grown organic compost about 2 inches thick was next
We purchased 2 yards of organic compost of which about half was used in the beds
A light mulch was added on the top - total growing depth is about 12 "
The beds were left to settle for a few days before transplanting and seeding
All in all this was over a period of 4 days and totalled about 16 hours labour for two adults. Some of the labour was quite heavy at times.

Garlic interspersed with 6 tomatoes & 16 Runner Beans — Garlic interspersed with 6 tomatoes & 32 Runner Beans = "The New"

What to Plant - the fun begins ...

I have always wanted a perennial herb garden near the house so that was the first choice. Planted rosemary, thymes, sage, chives, lots of parsley (seeded) and more garlic cloves
Another bed has been assigned for six tomato plants and some chives and perhaps more parsley
Kale, which overwintered in the greenhouse, are transplanted in another bed
Two of the beds will have my own Scarlet Runner beans I have been growing every year since the 1980s and also Sugar Snap peas. There is room to plant 32 of each on a trellis
At the time of writing there is "extra" garden space which I am going to enjoy planting with greens and perhaps one zucchini!
I did not have time to plant the Fall garlic but have planted about 60 bulbs for garlic greens. The leaves are a wonderful addition to stirfrys, etc this time of year

This & That :

Having the additional space to garden once again on a flat area has given me a new joy in gardening this year
Why not turn some of your own lawn into an edible organic garden
Both bush and pole peas were seeded direct, early in our cloudy, wet April and shoots started peaking through the soil the end of the 2nd week of April.
3 Winter greenhouse kale were planted out and we have had a fresh garden salad with garlic greens, chives and kale from our garden
Garlic cloves planted direct in March are 4 to 6" tall
4 Rhubarb plants survived the winter as did 5 small kale (outside)
Parsley, mesclun, bok choy and chard seeds all sprouted in the cold frame

In closing, I know I will run out of garden space before I run out of veggies to plant! But I know the garden is off to a good start. The soil is organic and all the beds received a good layer of organic compost so I am hoping for a fruitful year. All the best with your dreams and schemes ...