Planning Where I Will Plant Each Vegetable In My Garden

Before the beds were remodeled

This morning while I had my coffee in my garden, I made my plans for this year's garden. Last year my husband enlarged the beds in the backyard that are built of rocks. Since he took down a couple of trees that had small beds built around them, he combined those beds all into one big one. It is really nice. I can't wait to plant it. Making a plan for your new garden is the most important thing. To know where each plant is going to go when you plant, means that you are not just throwing a bunch of plants here and there. It will be a more productive garden this way.

Taking down a couple of the trees.

It was hard work for my husband to rebuild these beds. But he did a great job and I love the way it looks now. I was out there this morning, envisioning what it will look like full of plants. My beans will definitely be planted here. Bush beans come up real fast for me, so it won't be long after I plant the seeds before I will have plants. Have to wait for our weather to cooperate though before I can do any planting outside.

The raised beds today!

The closest bed in this photo, the round bed, will have Wax (yellow) beans planted in it this year. The next bed you see, I call that the L bed (since it is shaped as an L), will have Blue Lake Bush beans in it. The very last bed, where you see the two trees, the snake bed (not because it has a lot of snakes, but due to it's shape, it does have some snakes in it though.), will have the Contender Bush beans planted in it. We can many jars of beans and eat them all winter. Mostly because it is my best crop.

Bush Beans planted in the first four beds here, 2013

I have always planted our green beans in the wood beds on the other side of the house. They say you shouldn't plant them in the same area year after year. So I will see if they are right. A whole different area for them. I am looking forward to having different plants in these beds this year. Spice up things a bit around Peaceful Forest Homestead! Maybe it will confuse the garden pests.

Copyright © 2014 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2014 Kathleen G. Lupole

Raised Rock Beds In My Garden

Apple Blossoms On Our Little Tree

Spring time means a lot of work to many home gardeners. It is work that most of us enjoy. There is something about digging in the dirt to plant a seed or a plant that will be food on your table. The marvel of that little seed, which gives you more than one piece of fruit or vegetable. Each seed is precious to me. I don't plant a whole row of something, just to thin it out later. Each seed I plant, I am hoping will give me a plant that is healthy and plentiful.

Jurassic Bed looks horrible!

This year I took a look at our raised bed that we call, The Jurassic Bed. It is named that, due to the fact, that everything that grows in it is a Jurassic size. Anyway, it has been here more than a few years and looked like it needed some updating. It is made with rocks we harvested on our property and old cinder blocks I got from a friend. It looked so ugly, I felt bad for it. It produces a ton of food for us. Plus, I love making things out of the various items we have right here on our land. Instead of purchasing rock or new planters. Besides no one else has one exactly like mine! LOL

Added More Rock, Compost & New Plants!

I mentioned to my husband that I thought I'd try to bring more compost to it after I add another layer of new rock. I moved the cinder blocks to the end and took a look at our rock pile. I was not up to moving such heavy rocks but figured I could do them a little at a time over the week. Next thing I knew, he had the wheelbarrow at the rock pile and was selecting rocks to add to the bed. It didn't take him long to put them on. After that he hauled five wheel barrow loads or more to fill it up to the top.

Cinder Blocks Are Individual Planters

I added the compost to the cinder blocks. They make a nice little planter for five special plants. I have planted green peppers in each one. Hoping they make it with the cold temperatures we are now having. I knew I jumped the gun by planting my garden this week. New York is a little "iffy" around this time of the year. The general rule is "ON or AFTER Memorial Day!"

All Done!

Did you already plant your garden? If so, I hope you have great weather to keep your garden producing for your family. This is the most important thing anyone can do this year. Grow a garden and feed your family!

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2013  Kathleen G. Lupole

Raised Beds For The Frugal Minded Homesteaders

Raised Beds Made Of Wood

Raised Bed Made Of Cinder Block & Rocks

Raised Beds Made Of Rocks

Raised Bed Long & Winding Made Of Rocks

Raised Bed Made Of Rocks That I Built Myself!

Lettuce Is Grown In This Bed

A Sink I Got From An Old Dairy Farm

A Simple Raised Bed

These photos are just to give you some ideas. You can use just about any kind of containers you can dig up. Nothing is sacred! If you can put some drainage holes in the bottom, add some small rocks and put in your soil..........there you go! Plant your food! Nourish yourself and your family!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole

Raised Rock Beds

I built this myself in 2002!

 If you are thinking of planting a garden for the first time, or if you are thinking of building raised beds, then you may be interested in the way we built our raised beds out of rock. NY state is full of rock. In fact, there is many places, our property as well, that has old stone walls that were built long ago. Many of the walls have fallen over and are now just piles of rock. So they make it easy to build a raised bed and best of all they do not cost me anything.

I have many!

If you do not have access to rock on your property maybe there is a creek or river nearby? That is another good source of rocks. If you are building a house or other building and have to dig down into the ground, there is another good supply of rock. When my husband dug the room for our batteries, he brought up many rocks and built the raised bed I call "the snake bed" due to its shape.

The Snake Bed

I have written many posts about using raised beds for your garden.One is Building Raised Beds Out Of Stone and the other one is Raised Beds Make Gardening Easier. The reason I am mentioning this today is that I have so many people coming from Google searching for raised beds made out of rock. So there must be a lot of people out there who do have rock available to them. It is better than the wood beds because it holds the warmth at night when it gets cooler. They also keep the moisture in, but do not get too wet. Our garden improved so much when we changed the garden to the raised bed system.

Nutmeg's Garden

 All of the beds you see here today have mostly weeds in them as it has not been warm enough for us to plant yet. In a week or so, I hope to start working on them. This bed that I call Nutmeg's Garden is dedicated to my Siamese cat, Nutmeg who died in 2006, at 17 years of age. She buried in front of it. I wanted her close by, not out in the graveyard which is in the forest.

Cinder Blocks & Rock

 My method is to just put the rock around the shape you want and fill with fresh compost. I do not dig it up first, though you can if you choose to. It is totally up to you. My plants have done just fine without having to do that step. You can also add more layers to the rock to build them up higher. Especially as you age, it makes gardening easier, to not have to get down to the ground any farther than you have to. On this particular bed, I set containers of plants along the sides. This bed produces HUGE plants and produce. I always plant my summer squash in it and have been so pleased with the amount of food I get out of it. Pretty easy to plant in too. Try one and see what you think!

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