Now, however, I have moved to suburbia.  Fancy restaurants and nightlife have been traded for a lawn and open yard space.  And I must say, I’ve never been happier.  My husband and I decided that the best way to start a veggie garden this year was to build ourselves a raised bed garden in some unused space in back of our garage, right up against the house.   First we tilled the soil there to de-weed the space and aerate the dirt.

We chose this site because a) it didn’t require us ripping up half our lawn, b) we weren’t using this space anyway, and c) it gets about the best sun in our whole yard.  Also, it was already level which saved us lots of work.

To build the garden – first, we opted to construct our raised beds out of cedar which is moisture and rot resistant, and unlike pressure-treated pine does not contain toxic chemicals.  Basically, we measured our chosen garden space, and cut 1×6 cedar boards roughly to fit along the edge of the garden.  We then put the boards in place.  On the long side of the garden, rather than spend a lot of time approximating edges perfectly, we just overlapped the boards by about 2 feet which added stability and was much much easier.

We bought an additional 1×3 cedar board which we cut into 18 inch pieces to serve as stakes for the corners.  We secured the 1×6 boards to stakes at the corners of the garden, and also placed a stake in the center of the long side of the garden too for additional support.

At this point, we then filled in our garden.  Most raised bed garden sites advocate for a mixture of multiple ingredients (compost, peat, etc) but we opted to just go with primarily compost, admittedly for convenience.  Our garden is about 2 feet x 16 feet, and we were able to fill it with 1/2 cubic yard of compost from our local garden center.  We mixed this in with the tilled soil.

At this point, I sat down to figure out what exactly I felt like growing.  I personally love fresh tomatoes and peppers, so they were a definite.  I also happen to enjoy root veggies such as parsnips and turnips, so I thought I would give those a try.  And who doesn’t love some fresh cucumber and zucchini?  I came up with this garden plan – and yes, I am very nerdy, and graphed it out.

I consulted with online resources such as this one to figure out exactly how many plants I could place per square foot in my garden, and then in went the plants!

A quick word about this whole planting process.  I started the bulk of my plants from seeds indoors using a seed starting kit such as this one from Jiffy.  I started planting in early-mid May in New England.  Turns out, I was still on Philly time – this was rather too early, as I found out later when my cucumber and tomato seedlings withered up from the cold and died.  Also, I found out quite early that it was important to put up a fence to keep out the vermin, as something promptly ate all of my basil seedlings.  The point of this discussion is that gardening is a trial-and-error process.  So don’t be discouraged if things don’t work out perfectly the first time!  I replaced my basil, cucumber, and tomato seedlings with ones I bought at a local garden center and started over with these.

Here is my garden post-fence-construction and with the replacement plants.

And here is my garden today!

As you can see, despite some early setbacks, my garden is taking off!  In fact, I am having turnip greens fresh from the garden with dinner tonight.  If the recipe comes out good, I will blog about it too.  Promise.

]]> http://domesticpursuits.com/2011/06/02/raised-bed-gardening/feed/ 0 http://domesticpursuits.com/2010/10/02/flavor-savers-keeping-the-spirit-of-your-herb-garden-alive-throughout-the-winter/ http://domesticpursuits.com/2010/10/02/flavor-savers-keeping-the-spirit-of-your-herb-garden-alive-throughout-the-winter/#comments Sat, 02 Oct 2010 22:55:04 +0000 Kathleen http://domesticpursuits.com/?p=1264 It’s that time of the year again. Apple festivals every weekend, zinnias are in full bloom, and pumpkin-flavored everything.  Autumn is my favorite season of the year, but with it comes one very sad event– the end of the herb garden.  For those responsible enough to pot up their herb plants and actually keep them watered all winter, stop reading here. But for the rest of us– the good-intentioned houseplant killers of the world, I come bringing good news. You can enjoy the amazing flavors of your herb garden all winter long without having to buy one of those automatic watering thingies.

A brief suggestion on your herb gardens– if your plants are in pots, consider planting them in the ground where they might have a chance of surviving the winter (with the help of a little mulch). Potted herbs in winter= dead plants. The same goes for raised-bed gardens, unless you can get a serious amount of mulch/leaves to protect the plants.  Finally, remember that you can’t fight nature. Some plants weather the winter just fine– sage, thyme, and chives are a few examples. That lovely basil plant, on the other hand, is done at the end of the year.

Now, on to the flavor saving…

This isn’t rocket science. When you want to keep something preserved, you often freeze it or dry it. Canning, of course, comes in very handy for that huge cucumber crop, but it takes time and money. What I am suggesting here will take a few things you hopefully already have on hand: a few paper lunch bags and an ice cube tray or two.

This year,  I ended up with a huge amount of basil. My husband hoped for basil bushes, but by the end of the season, the plants are taller than me and still going strong. I know that in mid-December, my once-beautiful bushes will be dead, and I’ll be longing for the taste of fresh pesto. Beth already posted a fantastic fresh pesto recipe here. If you’re not up for making several batches of pesto right now, what I suggest is freezing chopped up basil leaves in a few ice cube trays. Once they’re frozen, you can pop them out into bags and store them all winter. Drop a cube or two into your tomato sauce, or defrost and make pesto when there’s snow on the ground!

This year, I spent a Saturday afternoon plucking Genovese and Thai basil leaves and creating one basil-rific mess in our kitchen.  I used my handy chopper (food processor would work fine too) and chopped the basil. Then, I distributed it into ice cube trays and called it a day.

If you’re feeling really advanced, you might want to consider adding a bit of water to the mixture, letting it sit, and freezing what is in essence basil water. Basil-scented ice cubes could be a great addition to a Sunday brunch Bloody Mary! The same could easily be applied to oregano or cilantro.

On to drying out those plentiful herbs. The key to drying out herbs for use throughout the winter is making sure there is proper air ventilation during the drying process. Not enough air, and you’ll end up with some lovely moldy leaves.

Grab a brown paper lunch bag and use a hole punch to make several holes in the bag for air circulation. Select herbs from your garden, clean them and dry them as much as possible. Throw them in and roll down the top. You’re done! Depending on temperature, and the amount you’re drying, you’ll soon be set with fresh dried herbs. Don’t forget to store them in an air-tight container once they’re ready for use. I also highly suggest dicing chives BEFORE going into the bag– it makes for very easy storage and portioning later.

So if you are looking longingly at your basil and oregano and wondering how much longer they’ll be around this year, dry those tears and get to saving that flavor!

As a fairly new homeowner, this spring has been my first real chance to delve into the world of gardening and landscaping.   While I don’t know if I’ve inherited my mother’s green thumb yet, she did leave me her lovely green gardening hat and a plethora of gardening tools– which is more than enough to get started.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing with you some of my experiences with my first perennial gardens and highlighting some “Must Haves” for your flower beds.  One of the many beauties of a perennial garden is that these plants will bloom year after year with a little care and maintenance. Please keep in mind that I’ll be sharing plants hardy in my hardiness region (5).  Perhaps my first nugget of planting wisdom is to check out what Plant Zone you live in– just about any gardening manual or plant catalog will have a color-coded map indicating this.  While it’s not a foolproof system, it’s a pretty good starting point for your garden.  So go check out what the hardiness zone is in your region, and stay tuned!