Vegetable Garden - Part One

I had a little back porch vegetable garden last year with a few tomato plants etc in pots and have since been planning my real vegetable garden. Summer tomatoes are so amazing and juicy and red and having them fresh from your yard is such a treat. My tomato plants did pretty well on the back porch, so I'm hoping they do even better with more room to grow. I'm also planning on planting some zucchini, eggplant, peas, swiss chard, hot peppers, and strawberries, along with some herbs. It was a really fun activity - and luckily this early April Saturday was sunny and warm. Jamie was an amazing help, very handy and strong - the bags of top soil and the beams were super heavy.

First we stopped at Lynch's and the lumber yard to pick up seeds, posts, and beams. Deer are a real problem in Long Island, so I was planning on building an 8 foot deer fence. Luckily, experts at Lynch's said that with such a small garden, I would be okay spraying this really stinky deer and rabbit repellent along with tying some light reflecting ribbon on a few stakes around the garden. That was a huge relief.
At the lumber yard, we got 3 8ft 2x6s (we cut one in half at my house) for an 8x4 raised bed.

Then we had to dig up the grass and aerate the soil. We took the pitch forks and flipped and loosened the soil as deep as we could go. (You're only supposed to do this the first time you build the garden.) This gives the roots room to grow and lets the ground retain more water than compact soil. After cutting the third 2x6 in half we drilled them all together in a frame.

Then we filled the the raised bed with dirt. We went back to Lynch's and got 8 bags of top soil and 4 bags of cow manure (not as smelly as anticipated). We filled the bed, however it wasn't nearly enough, and these bags are heavy. It's about halfway full now, and I'm planning to add more top soil etc around Easter.

There are some plants that can be planted in early spring when there's still a risk of frost. I decided to try some snap peas and swiss chard. I did two different kind of snap peas and just mixed the peas up in my hand before planting so I'll get a little bit of variety (these should be out by mid-June). The swiss chard should be ready around Memorial Day.

A lot of vegetables can't be planted directly and have to be started inside. Jamie loves hot peppers, so we decided to try some. I'd read that a great place to start seeds is in an eggshell because once the plant is bigger, you can plant it with the eggshell without hurting the roots and egg shell will dissolve. These are now sitting on my window sill and will hopefully give me some healthy hot pepper plants! Stay tuned, there will be lots more updates throughout the season!