Garden Planning Decisions

This morning I started telling hubby my thoughts and concerns about the garden.

After listening to me rattle on for a while he said, "I thought we were going to do a raised bed garden."

Um, what?

He want on to agree that we have poor soil and will have to add top soil to make the garden viable.

This all sounded very familiar. In fact, it was what I had decided to do after we nixed the greenhouse idea.

The books had led me astray! All my angst, research, and comparison shopping last night were unnecessary because we'd already decided on raised beds weeks ago.

::sigh::

We then went on to discuss what we would use for the frame (sides) of the raised bed. I had read online that wood will rot, although that seemed to be mainly in Florida, and the pre-fab frames I saw online were a little pricey. (In fact, the cost of the pre-fab frames was a factor in leading me to the idea of buying a bunch of Earth Boxes.)

After tossing around a few ideas, we settled on....cinder blocks. That came as quite a surprise to me. I figured hubby wouldn't want them because he would think it was ugly. He did say I should paint them to dress them up.

Hubby is very concerned that the garden doesn't turn into an eyesore. That is one of the reasons the promise of easy maintenance with Square Foot Gardening idea caught my eye.

But cinder blocks seem the easiest since we shouldn't have to dig trenches to sink them or put in supports. We're thinking we can just plunk them on the ground where we want them and move on. (We could be wrong.)

With all that settled, I can now move onto the fun of deciding just what I'm going to plant and when!
I think I will still use the principles of SFG to organize my garden.

Despite the fact that I'm supposed to start small, I think I will still want to start with two 4' x 4' beds. I really want to try growing asparagus, since it is our go-to green veggie, and it takes several years for it to get established. Therefore, I want to plant it right away.

In the mean time, I might use my current Earth Box for the herb garden. That might allow me to extend the life of the plants by bringing it into either the shed or the garage next winter.

Mint is the other random plant I know for sure I want to grow. I'm concerned about it being invasive. I think I will plant that in the big red pot I bought last year.

There are high expectations for the red pot. It has to be attractive, keep the mint contained, and also have enough room for a big, bushy mint plant.

I have to get mint for my cocktails from somewhere!