Rebuilding Our Raised Beds

Hubby hauling compost to the new bed!

Yesterday while I was taking a bath, my husband was working on filling the rest of our wooden raised beds with fresh compost. This is what I was waiting for to be able to plant our garden. When he was filling one, it had fallen apart. The wood beds are not treated wood, just rough cut from the sawmill. So eventually they would all have to be replaced. We knew that, but will not use any type of treated wood on our garden.

It took many loads of compost to fill!

He had wood for finishing the battery room so he used that for the raised bed. He said he figured he needed this immediately. He will buy more wood for the battery room next time he goes to Lowes.

You can see the difference in size here.

It was a nice surprise me! I love this bed. The old ones are 6" and this new one is 10". What a difference that makes! I planted the whole bed in a minute. Planted green beans in it. This bed has always been one that I grew tomatoes in. This year I am not planting any tomatoes, except for a few container planters. Because of the Late Blight I got two years in a row on my tomatoes. Too much work for nothing.

See how great it looks?

 

 

We grow a lot of green and wax beans. Last year was the first for the wax beans. I canned them together with the green beans and we loved them that way. So this year, I am planting a few beds of both. We eat a couple quarts a week all year long so I like to grow plenty. It is an easy plant to grow and take care of. And if you keep up with it, you get a big harvest every year. What about you? Do you plant them?

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole