Garden vegetable recipes
using produce grown in your
raised-garden-beds
which is part of your
basic landscaping
We usually like to get our raised-garden-beds planted early so we'll have a maximum of fresh vegetables each year. We are able to have lucsious meals prepared from out summer garden efforts.
Just before moving into our new home, RL had a “big heart” experience. It seems that his heart had grown to nearly twice it's normal size. He was in no shape to build raised beds as he waited for his heart to strengthen for open heart surgery. He was unable to build our garden beds for us as he usually would. Our daughter, Debbie, also had a big heart and came to help us out with building and planting our raised garden beds.
Our Raised Garden Beds
Debbie made these raised-garden-beds for us. She planted a garden that rivaled any garden we had ever had. That's a joy we will ever be grateful for – our daughter and our garden. Unfortunately we failed to take a picture until after the harvest was cleared in the late fall. You can see that the soil has already lowered considerably in the raised bed. This next spring we will have to add more as described below. I tell the above story, so you'll realize that most anyone can build raised-garden-beds. It's not just professionals, or men that can do this type of thing. The layout was designed by our daughter, with the diamond like square in the center for herbs. Debbie shopped for all the materials, sawed the lumber, nailed it together, and prepared the soil. RL oversaw it, but he did so from his arm-chair. Debbie planted everything. Without her help we would not have had a garden this year. In this garden, we had tomatoes, peppers, zucchini squash, carrots, beans, cucumbers, and in the little 2 foot center square, she planted 5 herbs which were delightful to add to our meals. In a very small area we got a myriad of vegetables and flavors. Gardening with raised beds has been a favorite of my family for years now. You do have to create the proper soil so the plants will flourish. We have tried all kinds of soil, but ultimately, you have to replenish the soil year after year. Manure is probably the best fertilizer coming from steers and cows. Alfalfa plants have roots that go 25 feet in the ground tapping the earth's rich trace mineral beds. Hay is what farmers feed cows and is made from dried alfalfa and the cows make manure. Consequently, you are replenishing the NATURAL trace minerals when you use manure for fertilizer. There are many plant foods available for your various landscaping plants. These plant foods can add a good balance of nutrients for a quick food every two or three weeks. For the garden, composted steer manure or chicken or turkey droppings, are much better for the growing season. Your garden will keep on giving and giving all year. All you have to remember on the subject of manure, is to make sure it has been composted, so it won't burn your tender plants because it is too "hot". Also, if you use manure direct from the farmer, don't count on it working the first year, because it takes a year to break down. You can also place grass clippings on your garden for added nutrition. In the fall, my father used to collect Maple leaves and put them on his garden plot. His gardens were famous where he used to live.
Learn how to grow my Dad's tomatoes in a cage
Peat moss has to be added periodically in the spring, as you build up your soil, too. There are some aeration materials, that absorb liquid and keep the soil light. Probably the most important thing to remember, is to rotate your crops,
Just like the farmer learned in days of 'yore, if you raise the same crop year after year, eventually the ground becomes depleted and the crops fail.
SEE ALSO:
....vegetable garden recipes
MORE
....Growing Tomatoes in a Cage
.... building a firepit
....ideas on basic landscaping
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