Expansion
My SFG is at my in-laws’ house, since our townhouse doesn’t have anywhere to grow on, and the maple trees nearby shade our deck quite nicely. My father in law is already talking about expanding the raised beds, and he hasn’t even tasted the tomatoes yet! He mentioned that we should add more beds, and that got me thinking about how I can do it cheaper next year. The less grass he has to cut in the backyard, the better. As long as I don’t grow any more beets, he’ll be happy.
I’m planning to try lasagna gardening, because filling the beds with purchased soil was very expensive. My sister has some big trees in her yard, and she’s more than happy to give me bags of them to use for mulch and compost. I hope to have the frames put together by August so I can put the cardboard down while it’s still dry, and I don’t have to deal with taking soggy cardboard from the recycling depot. The compost bin should have some good compost by then, and I’ll mix in the vermiculite, Sea Soil, and peat moss at that point as well. I’ll hit up Starbucks to get some grounds too. In October I’ll get the leaves and build the pile. Hopefully it will be ready by the early spring. If not, I’ll save those squares for planting in May.
There won’t be any trellises on these beds because they’ll be in front of the existing beds, but there are plenty of things that I want to grow that don’t need trellises: summer and winter squash, potatoes, and various herbs. Then in the fall, I’m going to do a big planting of garlic.