Raised Bed Garden (Part 3)

We are finally to the end of our 3 part raised bed garden series. If you missed the first two steps, you can see them HERE and HERE. This step includes the dirt we used, the decorative rocks for our pathways and then a little planting!

We even decided to add a big flower pot in the center so that we can plant a flower that goes well with what we will plant to help detour bugs, I've pinned lots of idea on my garden board on Pinterest.

My honey's boss was kind enough to allow us to get a truck load of very nice dirt from his property, but we new it would need some extra healthy something to go with it, so we used the Sta-Green Garden Soil at Lowe's. We used (8) bags @ $6.17 per bag.

The load of dirt was almost too much for our truck, but driving slow and easy got us back home with our free dirt ready to shovel into our garden beds.

First we poured out 2 bags of garden soil for each bed and then we added the dirt and mixed well. I mostly just spread the dirt around with a rake while my honey did most of the hard work! Great job Baby!

Next we poured out our rocks for our pathways. We went to Walmart and found bags of medium sized rock called Arizona river pebbles. We used (5) bags @ $3.98 per bag, we could really use a few more bags to be honest.

Next we added mulch to the outside boarders of each bed. It was also purchased at Walmart, its called Cypress Mulch and we used (4) bags @ $3.28 per bag. This was basically for decorative purposes, but it also holds moisture and keeps some bugs away.

Since our free dirt was straight from Mother Nature my honey decided it should be sifted of all unwanted plant life or any left overs of plants before we started planting. He made a sifter using 2x4s and hardware cloth. The picture above shows what he would start with and then......

This is what he would ended up with and discard outside the beds back onto our property. It's still good stuff, he just didn't want it in our gardens.

The next step was to rake the soil until it was all smooth to make sure the bed was free of unwanted bits and parts.

So after pouring, shoveling, mixing and sifting, the final step was raking. This is how nice and clean the soil looked after all those steps were done. BEAUTIFUL! You can see the bed in the back is still yet to be done. It has not been sifted and raked yet.

Trying to figure our how to mark your plants? This is how my honey marked what we were planting. He just stapled the plant marker to the bed frame in line with the plant. I really liked that genius idea!

Here are our tomato plants! We've got big ones and little ones and I'm hoping they all do well. My honey is a perfectionist so he put up the marking strings to be sure he planted in a straight line. I love you Baby!

It doesn't have to be done all at once. It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!