Making a Garden Bed

I turned my small plat of yard into a vegetable garden. It was a flower bed that never got watered and got unruly after July. It was quite the adventure and took way longer than I wanted it to, but that's okay. Also, I have to add that this maybe cost $150 total because we re-used almost everything, the only new things are the vegetables and flowers.

I rent my house and I have a very cool landlord who let me change the front yard into a veggie garden. The only thing is, is that nothing could be permanent, so you will notice that everything done can be removed. I already have raised beds in the back on my paved driveway, but that was so much fun last year that I wanted more. I loved being able to grow my own food so I figured why not grow more that I like.

First things first, we got rid of the flowers in the front and by we, I mean my dad who is my landlord. He placed them on his yard. Then he cut the bed to make the veggie garden bigger to match up to the staircase.

All the dirt came from the grass being cut out. The plastic was the old trim for the flower garden.

Once the new garden was cut into a square, we brought in bricks to frame the bed. These were free because my dad had extra from an old project. You don't need to buy new either if your dad doesn't have leftover materials; you can probably find some at a garage sale. The bricks were great because we just placed them on the grass around the bed to create a little bit of a raised bed.

Once the bricks were in, we pushed the dirt agains't them. Then I flipped the dirt to start getting the old roots out. I flipped the dirt at least five times during this process to get the roots.

At this point, it was time to clean the fence. This garden is right next to the street and sidewalk. I wanted a tall fence to deter people from damaging the garden. My dad, had an old fence he was keeping for a rainy day and IT WAS THE PERFECT LENGTH. Which in my books means it was meant to be. Again, I got this for free, you can get old things at garage sales or new things in the clearance section at hardware stores. You don't need to buy new.

To get the fence up, we used some 2x4's to balance it on the bricks and then my dad had metal rods that we put into the ground and zip tied to the fence. Then we also zip tied the fence to the porch.

Once the fence was up, I made a path in the middle of the dirt. This way I would be able to reach all angles of the garden. We got the rocks in the middle of nowhere and if you're smart you'll find some of your own. So another thing I got for free.

To make the path, clear out a section, add the rocks how you like them and push the dirt back on the rocks and pat it in. Then brush off the dirt from the top of the rocks and cover the sides with mulch to make it nicer.

Once I did this, I realized the dirt I had, had no nutrients in it. So basically it was a waste to add the mulch, but oh well.

To make your dirt into soil, I waited like two weeks for the Miracle Grow to go on sale at Costco. It happens once a year and it's the best deal you will get. I bought three bags to cover the two sides of the bed. Then I turned it again. And again. And again. There were so many roots.

See the dirt looks better than before. Anyways, I needed some trellises for the squash I plan to grow and my dad with his leftover materials made me some that could be removed. So another thing that was free to me! Honestly all my garden beds are from re-used materials which is just perfect.

At this point the path looked like garbage and so we got some mulch in natural (un-dyed) and added it to the path to make it nice. We also added some shake and feed for vegetables to the soil to give it just an extra boost. I was worried because I realized I had grubs on my lawn so I wanted to make sure the soil would grow my vegetables. I did get some spray and I will use it once it get's a little warmer.

This is the final product. I can't wait to plant some vegetables! It's so sustainable because everything is second hand and it's going to be able to grow so many vegetables.

Thanks for reading,

Samantha