Cedar Raised Garden Beds

It's been an amazing summer, and I know I've been MIA for a good while.  Let's catch up on a few things that have been going on!  One project that we started at the beginning of the summer {we got a bit of a late start on this one} was our raised garden beds.  We've been wanting to start growing some of our own fruits and veggies but didn't really have a place for them. 

After deciding that raised garden beds was the way I wanted to go {we may have easily shifting clay soil over here in east Austin, but it is supposed to be excellent for growing things}, I found some basic ones at Home Depot that seemed easy enough to assemble.  As it turns out, Matt was more interested in building our own boxes than these pre-fab ones, so back to the store they went. 

After selecting our cedar lumber, I drew up some plans in Auto CAD {something I do on a daily basis at work}, and Matt got to cutting and assembling the boxes.  He ended up constructing 2 boxes approximately 3 feet by 6 feet in size and stapling a plastic tarp to the inside walls of each box to help keep the soil inside.  I chose a natural stain to really bring out the beauty of the cedar wood without masking it, and Matt got a little creative with his "MADE IN TEXAS" etching on the box tops.  He even went a step further and installed his own irrigation system in each of the boxes to help with watering our garden.  We keep a hose hooked up to the nozzle he installed in the sides of the boxes, and all we have to do is turn on our water nozzle to get the built-in sprinklers going.  Genius! 

After moving the boxes out to the backyard, laying newspaper on the ground {a tip from our local garden center}, and too many dirt-filled wheel barrows to count, we finally got some planting done.  Tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, squash, okra, basil, mint, rosemary + chives are our current picks.  So far, the garden is thriving - maybe even too much!  We are thinking of building more boxes in the future, but for now, this is our first try at being gardeners, so I'm not complaining! 

This project made us start getting excited about finally using and enjoying our yard more {it's only been 3 years *cringe*}, and it has spurred us on to more outdoor projects - coming soon!