My Beginner Raised Garden Bed

For the last few years I have grown tomato plants, bell peppers, and herbs in containers with enough success to desire to go a little further.  Now, for my "serious" gardener friends, this doesn't get more beginner.  However, for us, we are quite excited about it!

So here is what my tomato and pepper plants looked like in the containers.  These pics were taken well into summer when they were producing well.

Here is a picture of an example of my "crop" from last year - red pepper, tomatoes, and basil (the basil was grown on my deck, not in the containers shown above).

This year we decided to step it up slightly and move forward in our gardening by doing a raised garden bed.  I decided to continue growing herbs on my deck in containers because it has always worked well and proves to be very convenient when preparing food to step out on my deck with kitchen sheers and snip away!

Choosing a Spot for the Raised Bed

Well, the flattest and sunniest spot we have is our front yard and I'm pretty sure that tilling it up for a garden as big as I would like would be frowned upon.  The upside to our backyard is that certain spots gets the coveted morning sun.  The downside is that only some areas gets the sun and it has a steady slope - we are not committed at this point enough to pull out the bobcat, so we decided on a strip of the yard closest to our deck.  It gets morning sun and doesn't interfere with the kids ability to play in the yard.  

Building the Raised Bed

My very capable hubby built the raised bed 3'w x 8'l x 2'h.  The corner posts go up an extra foot in case we need to add chicken wire.  I do not want to do that though because it will be harder for the kids to garden with me. We lined it with landscape fabric before filling it.

Choosing our plants

I chose my plants based on 3 criteria.  

1.  What we enjoy eating that can now be clean, organic and locally grown (did I catch all the buzz words? ;))

2.  What we spend a lot of money on in the grocery store.

3.  What is viable for us to grow as beginners and in limited space. 

So what did we decide on?  2 tomato plants, green pepper, red pepper, cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash,  beans my son got from church as a teaching visual (seriously, he planted them and we have bean stalks), and romaine & bibb lettuce.  The lettuce I bought in early spring and planned on planting in a pot, but never got to it.  It's actually done quite well, though i know as the temps rise, it will wain.  Here's a picture from April 25th once everything was planted:

                                            

 Here is the bed on May 15:

I'm so excited! The tomato plants are in the back with the cages and have a few small tomatoes, the beanstalks are in front of the tomatoes with the green stakes, and the HUGE plants in front are my squash and zucchini plants.  Here's where my serious gardener friends can insert a sarcastic "amateur" comment about planting squash and zucchini in such a small space!

In my containers on my deck I grow lemon thyme, butter lettuce, sage, peppermint, basil, rosemary, and green onions.

 Why I love my garden:
The biggest reason I love my garden is because I LOVE the way my kids and I have spent time together on it.  Everything from choosing the plants, planting them, being amazed at the growth (thank you God for the good rain you have provided), and cutting the herbs and lettuce for salads has been a serene way to bond with my sweet ones.


So, think about a small garden if you don't have one.  For those who do, I would love to hear any tips/advice you may have!

 

Charleston!

Charleston is one of my favorite towns to spend time in.  I love the food, the shopping, and mostly the architecture and design of the homes.  There was a time when my family spent quite a bit of time in Charleston, so any opportunity to return is welcomed.  Some visits have brought lots of shoportunities, some have brought lots of culinary opportunities, but this one was a quick visit with the kids that gave them a taste of Charleston.

The kids' favorite part of the visit was definitely Fort Sumter.  This brief description is taken directly from the website  http://www.nps.gov/fosu/index.htm:

Where the American Civil War Began

Decades of growing strife between North and South erupted in civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery opened fire on this Federal fort in Charleston Harbor. Fort Sumter surrendered 34 hours later. Union forces would try for nearly four years to take it back.

Right from the beginning, they were excited to board this:

A nice bonus to visiting Fort Sumter is the ferry tour of Charleston Harbor that you get in the process, giving views such as these:

 

 Once at Fort Sumter, you can listen to the history from one of the guides, or go about touring the fort yourself.  If you visit, don't skip the museum located at the fort, it is filled with history and artifacts.  The biggest hit for our kids were the many cannons.

On to my favorite culinary experience of the trip.  Now, there are soooo many wonderful restaurants in Charleston.  You can find amazing food at super expensive restaurants and you can find amazing food at places Guy Fieri would visit.  My favorite of this trip was the Hominy Grill.  So so so yummy.  I had the shrimp and grits, the hubby had the - get this - the big nasty :), and we tried their fried green tomatoes (oh my) and their she-crab soup (a Charleston classic).  Wow, just wow!

 As you can see these are the shared dishes, and apparently we were so excited when our entrees came out that I didn't get a picture of them!

One staple of Charleston is the City Market.  It's been part of Charleston's history for 200 or so years.  It's a strange mix of being overly touristy, but at the same time being such a part of Charleston history and therefore visit-worthy.  I do not visit the City Market each time I go to Charleston, but I read that it had recently underwent major renovations and wanted to see what had been done.  I have to say that I liked the renovations and thought it stayed within the Charleston style. Here are a couple of pics:

Charleston City Market

This shows the renovations to the ceiling of the market and the overhead entrance sign to the Historic Foundation that now has a location at the City Market

Thanks for touring the low-country with me!