Raised bed gardening

I have currently entered the world of raised bed gardening.  I am super excited to take on this challenge and take my gardening skills to the next level.  Last year I grew bell peppers, tomatoes, jalapeños and herbs in pots on the deck. Which was a great way to test my environment and learn some tricks before expanding the garden to raised beds.

By doing the pots on the deck I quickly learned that our squirrels are relentless pesky pests. They initially devestated my crop by digging through the pots to plant and store their pecan nuts.  Then I discovered they would dig up all the plants and flip them upside down before they had matured.  Then I learned that the only way to protect the crop was to completely cage the plants because even when they had matured my vegetables kept disappearing. To say the least is was  a huge learning curve.

This time around I'm feeling really prepared.  I knew I would need to do a raised bed as our dirt is hard black clay and not full of the nutrients needed to support vegetables at this time. I also knew that the beds would need some kind of covering to protect against the squirrels.  

My husband who is amazing, built my beds out of untreated cedar planks.  Why cedar and untreated?  Well , great question!  Cedar is rot resistant and weathers  the elements very nicely. Untreated? For an organic garden untreated wood is a must because the chemicals that are used for the treatment of wood can leach into your soil and your vegetables. 

The next step was my husband attached PVC pipping and I bought netting to be drapes and used as a covering. All items were purchased at Home Depot and took an afternoon to build.  A helpful hint, Home Depot will cut all your wood and PVC pipping to any measurement.  So you don't have to buy a saw or spend the time cutting the products when you get home.

Next I bought organic planting soil.  I know that if you compost and such you can use that and not need to spend the mone in soil. I do not compost as we did have a compost bin from the previous owners of our home.  Unfortunately it attracted multiple animals to our yard who also decided to make our attic their home.  Boo.... So composting for us is currently out of the question.  But I'm researching and exploring other options.  

I used about 12 bags of 2 cubic square feet soil to fill my beds. My beds are approxmentlay 4'x4'. My goal is to maintain and treat the soil  throughout the year so it maintains it's nutrients. Which will allow me to not have to invest in more soil. This was the most expensive part of this project. 

The end project after planting my starters and seeds.