Last year I planted a few tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. This year, I decided I kinda wanted to grow a whole produce aisle.
Pioneer Woman wrote this post about building your own raised garden beds and I thought, "hey, I can do that". So right that instant, I drove off to Home Depot and loaded my car with wood and outdoor screws.
It was still pretty cold outside when I decided to do this so I built them in my garage.
Here they are stacked on top of each other. The PVC brackets/hoops are to support some plastic to create a greenhouse like environment in order to extend the season.
I don't need them right now but I thought it best to put the brackets in place before I filled the boxes with dirt. I just attached them like this:
And then bent some 5 feet flexible PVC between them. (My boxes are 3'x8' in case you were curious).
Then it came time to find a place to put them. This area along the fence looked promising... especially since I cannot stand the hostas that will wind up growing there.
So I got to work pulling out the wood and Adam helped me dig up all of the hostas and roots inhabiting that area. Pretty soon it looked like this.
Which meant it was time to install the garden beds.
Adam worked on staking them out and then leveling them.
While I worked on constructing some trellis like contraptions for my climby things (peas, tomatoes, etc.) to play on. I used electrical conduit and Trellis Netting
at the recommendation of a book I was reading (All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space
)
I made the frame and then just tied the netting on.
Then it was time to fill them. I used a combination of high quality top soil, peat moss, and composts. (The potting mix in the foreground is for my pots, not the beds)
Trellis in place and beds starting to get filled (FYI, we put down SEVERAL layers of wet newspaper first to suppress any weeds/grass/plants that might want to come up in my veggie garden)
So, here they are a few weeks later.
I started some spring veggies in the one on the left so it's the only one I put a grid on so far. Planted in that bed so far are: Sugar Snap Peas, Lincoln Peas, Turnips, Carrots, Chives, Beets, Cabbage, Radishes, .... I think that's it in here for now.
Today, my first pea sprouted!!!
My radishes have been sprouting for a few days
And the turnips just started coming out. They dont' seem to be in as pretty neat rows as the radishes but I think it's because I planted 2-3 seeds per hole and they just need thinning now.
I've also got several window boxes and fruit crates planted with different lettuce and spinach mixtures. Here's a few peeking out.
And here's our 2-year old Centennial Hops racing to the sky. Last year they were so wispy and puny but this year they have probably quadrupled in girth.

There seems to still be danger of frost here in Chicago so the rest of my babies are hanging out inside still.
The kitchen garden window is filled with my herbs (some started from seeds, some bought as transplants)
I didn't think this Rosemary was ever going to turn in to anything, I planted it probably 12 weeks ago but as you can see, it's finally starting to resemble my favorite herb ever!
And in the bay window I've got a good 100 other seedlings. Most planted about 3 weeks ago, some just a few days ago:
There's about 8 different kinds of tomatoes in here (I wanted to make sure I had every color covered so there's yellow, orange, purple, red, etc. I'll tell you the specific varieties later). 3 different kinds of peppers, 3 different basil's (including 2 purple ones!), Okra, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, onions, leeks, marigolds, dill, lettuces, cabbage, etc.
Mr. Meowmers is not happy that they get to sit in his favorite spot in the house but sometimes I'll let him squeeze in next to them. But only under my supervision since a few weeks ago he massacred a few of them while we were sleeping. (If I'm not around I keep the blinds down which prevents him from getting up there.
So, that's my garden so far. Did you guys start one? Leave me a link! I want to follow more garden blogs too so if you have a recommendation or favorite garden blog, let me know! I'm currently loving You Grow Girl!