We are in full-fledged beast mode here on our property.. trying to get our garden done.  Yes, it’s pretty late in the season.  Normally we plant our veggies some time the middle of May, so we are running a few weeks late.  But, better late than never, I guess.  I did pick up a few plants last week:  tomatoes, red, yellow, and orange peppers, cucumbers, herbs, etc.  It will give us a few things this year to eat each day, however we won’t be able to can anything, I doubt.  But that is OK.  We didn’t want to miss fresh tomatoes from the garden as there is NOTHING like it.  I wanted to share with you today, the beginning of our raised vegetable garden project.  And, talk about the steps we have taken thus far, and why we did it this way.

The Beginning of Our Raised Vegetable Garden

This type of work really isn’t all that fun.  But we keep pushing through knowing that once this part is done… it is DONE!  FOREVER.  The prep work is what takes so dang long.  So this used to be a field.  And here in Ohio, we have clay soil.  So we would either have to bring in tons of different things to amend the soil or add raised garden beds, that we an add really good dirt to.  And since we want this property and all of the structures to be easy for us in the future, we went with raised garden beds.  We know it’s a bigger cost upfront, but this will be something that we are SO HAPPY about in years to come.  There will be no bending or stooping over.

Step 1

Choose the area that you want you vegetable garden.

When choosing the area of your veggie garden, you want to make sure it is in full sun for the most part.  The area we chose is outside of the woods and has no trees around it. There is only a little shade in the morning during the sunrise, otherwise, it’s sun all day.  I explained this in another post about our veggie garden.  We chose this spot because it is close to the chicken coop.  It makes it really nice because we can use the compost from the chicken run which will contain their poo for the garden. Which is SO GOOD for your veggies. And, also.. any veggies that are a little past due for our liking will go directly to them.  It’s a great set up since it’s so close.

Step 2

Make sure the ground is level.

When we chose this area, the ground ran towards the woods.  We needed to level it out with extra dirt so that water didn’t stand in certain areas.  This is the tedious part and really annoying.  When we work on projects like this, we just want to get to the fun part… PLANTING.  But, it’s important to do this part right. Because you don’t want to tear everything up next year to fix everything.  And, you will want your raised beds to be level and not whopper jawed.

Step 3

Lay down landscaping fabric.

This part may be optional.  But, again, we want to do everything that we can now so that we don’t have to deal with different problems that may arise in the future.  By laying down some type of underlayment, it will do a few things.  It will control a lot of the weeds that would pop up otherwise.  And it will hold the stone that we are putting on top so that it doesn’t sink down into the dirt.  If we didn’t use this, we would have to replace the stone every couple of years.  Again.. that’s not what we want.

This is the type we used!

Step 4

We added packing stone.

I’m not sure if this is absolutely necessary either.  But we added packing stone down on top of the fabric so that we could level it out even more.  And, it makes a really great surface.  We used a packer which resembles a lawnmower to pack the stone down.  It worked well.

Step 5

We added a top layer of pea gravel for the paths.

This is probably another step that wasn’t absolutely necessary.  But, we love pea gravel and love how it looks in paths.  This gives it a more finished look.  We did it now because if we wanted to add it next year, it would have to be done by hand.  My motto this year is to work smarter not harder.  That would have definitely not been a smart move.  So Deb added the pea gravel as the next layer and we will add all of our raised veggie beds on top of that layer.

Step 6

Of course, we added a decorative urn.

This step was actually done BEFORE step 5 but it isn’t a must.  So I put it on at the end.  We added our huge decorative urn BEFORE the pea gravel and directly onto the packing stone so that we could make it level.  This obviously is a MUST HAVE for a veggie garden but it is a must have for us.  Ha!  We bought this last year, I believe.  And, wanted something decorative and pretty in the middle of the garden.

Step 7

The fun part begins which is adding your raised vegetable beds.

We wanted our veggie garden to, of course, match our style.  So we went with metal Vego garden beds.  They come in all different shapes and sizes.  And one bed can actually be made into lots of different sizes.  Once we started adding the metal beds, we remembered that we had two wooden garden beds that Deb made last year.  And, decided to incorporate them into this design.  Since they have trellises already in them, we added them to the back.

The Next Steps to Complete this Project

Picket Fence 

We have all of the supplies for a picket fence being delivered tomorrow.  So stay tuned for that project.  It will go all the way around the garden.  The picket fence is another thing that isn’t a must, but we have lots of wildlife around this area, so we want to protect our garden for years to come.  And, while we are doing this project, we just want it done.

Arbor for the Entrance

We want the entrance to be an arbor walking into the garden area.  I can see it all in my head, but don’t have any plans.  Which means, we will be making this up as we go… just like we did our pergola at the old house and our pergola swing frame.  We have some round porch columns that someone gave us that we will use. And, add a pergola top to that.

Landscaping around the Garden

You know us… we have to be a little extra.  So, we want to add some landscaping round the garden area and the chicken coop.  And, we are thinking of giving it an English Garden look, which boxwoods, flowers, and herbs.  We will have a stone path going from our chicken coop to the garden area along with seating and different shapes and styles of flower pots in the mix.  

I think I have covered it all.  If you have any questions for us, leave a comment below.  I absolutely love how this veggie garden area is turning out and cannot wait to get to the planting part.  It should be coming soon.

Also… stay tuned for all of the next steps because I will for sure share them here and over on social media.  Everything usually gets share on social media first since that is done in the moment, but soon after, you will see it here on debanddanelle.com.  

Thanks for stopping by the website today.  I really appreciate it.