Raised Bed Covers.

Hubby tackled another great project in the past few weeks that put his carpentry skills to work once again. The first day we let all thirteen chickens out to free range after we got our second set of seven, we found out the hard way real quick that chickens WILL destroy your garden vegetables. They just would not stay out of the raised beds and they kept pulling chunks out of the leaves of the lettuce and cabbage plants.

So for a temporary resolution we would cover the plants with towels and drop cloths... but, then that was a pain and we thought if we came up with something permanent... that could keep chicken AND other animals (deer, raccoons, etc.) out of the raised beds... then we could take down the perimeter plot saver fence around the summer plot all together for the Winter! And so the designing and constructing began...

First one complete! Now to make four more...

Measuring for the two smaller ones.

All five finished!! Protection from the animals and easy to water. So creative!

More Raised Beds!

Hubby had a great idea and decided to add two additional raised beds to our garden. He built walls between the current three raised beds and filled in to make our total now five beds!

Next we filled up the two new empty beds with soil from our topsoil pile and then added a mixture of potting soil and manure.

Looks like TT gave the fill dirt her seal of approval!

Now it just needs to be planted!

Planting the Garden - Day 1

Saturday was another great productive day on the farm for us! After working the delivered top soil into the plot with the new tiller attachment over and over throughout the morning, Hubby had the garden area ready for cutting rows.





All the while this was going on, I had started setting out and planting in the raised beds. I planted all of the strawberries in one bed, one tomato plant in each bed, all of my sweet potatoes in the 2nd bed, a couple of cabbages in the same, and then my herbs (rosemary and cilantros) along with one squash and one zucchini in the 3rd bed. You see you have to really pay attention to how big the actual plant will grow to in order to know how much room you need to fit with the other plants into the same bed. Mathematics in the garden!



Once the beds were fully planted, Hubby had the garden rowed about the same time...



So I moved on into the garden and proceeded to plant every last one of the other plants we had on hand: More tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and the remaining squash, zucchini and cabbages.



At the same time, Hubby was seeding the perimeters around the garden and raised bed areas with fescue seeds to try and stabilize the soil with grass.



I forgot to mention I made a trip to the local feed store earlier in the morning to check out their veggie seeds. I picked up seeds for sweet corn, pole beans and pink-eyed peas. After planting all of the other veggie plants, I managed to plant the seeds for the sweet corn. I have to say what a pain-staking process! I do not know how farmers could stoop over for hours on end planting seeds. OUCH!



This was the position I stood in for what felt like hours on end. Of course, I had some help (notice dogs- one who just wanted to sleep between the rows and the other wanted to eat the seeds)... But, I know there has to be a better way!!




These were most of my views of the dogs while seeding towards the end of the day. They were so tired from watching us plant the garden! And this girl was beat too: aching back, knees and hips. Ouch!
But, the view at the end of the day made it all worth the effort!

Working in the Top Soil

Oh my aching body, we had a super productive afternoon and evening on Friday! I took off work early and met my relative "BJ" at the farm. He helped me bolt on the auger bit attachment to the tractor and then proceeded to help me bore all 12 holes for the three raised bed corner posts.



I could not take photos of my part in this whole drilling holes act, but I am here to tell you it involves lots of hand work with a set of post hole diggers and my back is still aching just thing about it. The auger bit is a very heavy, clunky piece of steel that has to be lead into the right spot and held there for direction. On several holes it would try to snake away from the exact spot to drill and start drilling on an angle. Very manual hand work leading it...

I forgot to mention I had a 16 yard load of top soil delivered on Friday morning. And Hubby picked up some bags of drainage rocks for the bed bottoms.



Once the beds were lowered into the augered holes, we were ready to spread the drainage rock and back fill the posts.




Next, it was time to fill the raised beds with top soil mixed with a tad of fertilizer.



Once the beds were full up, we then spread the rest of the top soil into the area where the garden will be. It was dark by the time we got the top soil moved around. Even with the headlights on the tractor, it would wait until morning to till.

Staking the Plot by Sunset

Weekday nights can be challenging for us to get to the farm after work and actually get something done. Monday and Tuesday were a bust since we both had to work late.

On Wednesday night, we laid out our plan using stakes and string by the sunset light... Marking where the perimeter fence would go, the location of the raised beds, where the garden rows would be plus our future muscadine lines. And then we carried the heavy wood raised beds out into the plot. We carefully set them into their exact locations for digging the holes later in the week.



Rain is forecasted for the weekend so we would have to do some serious work between Thursday and Friday. Have to order a load of topsoil first though.

Constructing the Raised Beds

Sunday was a much more productive day for us on the farm. After a quick trip to the hardware depot for some materials, Hubby got to work constructing our raised bed planters.



And I have to tell you that he has some seriously mad carpentry skills! Who knew????!







All the while the master carpenter is doing his thing, I was outside at my newly located stainless work table potting all of the new veggie plants we had purchased so far. Once the raised beds are in place, filled with top soil and ready for planting, we will transfer these from the pots to the beds. So far we are planting tomatoes, jalapenos, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, cabbage, strawberries, sweet potatoes, rosemary and cilantro.









And then there were three! Three beautiful heavy duty raised bed planters ready to go set in the plot... but, we will save that for another day. (When the soil is drier!)