Getting everything ready

When growing a garden from seed you have to be on point with making sure stuff is planted in the correct time frame, make sure they are watered, have plenty of sunlight, and for a few plants a little shade is good. some plants need a frost to germinate and sprout. While some plants will not survive in the cold.

Every year it seems like we start off like a master gardener then mid summer comes around and we are taken over with weeds. I mean just one week of not being able to weed it because life became extremely busy, and the weeds start looking at you like ,"what garden?"😅

So, this year things are being done a little differently. We got our green house put up. We were able to keep the seeds in the greenhouse! Instead of them being inside the house like previous years. Let me tell y'all, it's been nice not having seed trays all over the house!! My husband built four wooden raised beds and someone gave us a metal one. The yard and garden area looks nicer and more organized with the raised beds! Plus, weeds can be kept out so much easier!!

Layering raised beds

we layered the raised beds starting with cardboard as a weed barrier. It will eventually break down! Next, we put down some wood chips/twigs for nutrients and filler then the potting soil/dirt. There are multiple different ways to layer a raised bed. This is just a simple way we decided to try and it works great for us!

We spread wood chips then laid the cardboard but you don't have to spread wood chips underneath It's just how it worked out for us this time lol

Cardboard down as a weed barrier! Easiest, cheapest way for us!

I accidentally put the pine straw in before taking a picture so I pulled some back to show the sticks we put underneath.

This raised bed was layered with pine straw and in the other raised beds we used wood chips. We ran out of wood chips but had plenty of extra pine straw laying around. Pine straw works the same as wood chips. Pine straw usually takes longer to breakdown though.

Then added soil and plants. This is the celery bed😊

Burying eggs Because they are beneficial for gardens! they provide calcium, a crucial nutrient for plant growth, and can act as a natural pest deterrent, especially for slugs and snails.