That's why I went simple with the 2x6's and planter blocks. In a few years if any of the boards need replaced, just slide them straight out an put in a fresh one. The blocks themselves will be locked in place once I add some rebar stakes and exterior 2x2's so it makes it an easy to refresh setup.
I’ve never ordered plants by mail before, so trying something new this year. The first of them, Camellia Sinensis Tea, has arrived: I just did a quick read about the plant and I didn’t realize that they are more of a shrub than plant. It seems like they’d do better in warmer climates than ours, but it’ll be a neat experiment, particularly over-wintering it. In somewhat related news, plans for my workshop in the new garage will entail a dedicated area for gardening. My old workbench will make a nice potting bench and place to keep everything organized.
I planted all of our vegetables after work today. Squash, pole beans, bell peppers, grape tomatoes, 2 kinds of larger tomatoes, eggplant and cherry peppers. Last fall I transplanted our battered and beaten blueberry bush to the community garden plot, and it’s doing great. Being fenced off from starving deer saved it.
I've got some more blueberry plants coming in the mail and this past weekend was given another 1/4# of perennial wildflower seed to do whatever I want with. Given those two things, I'm thinking of how to maybe expand our garden area into more garden, less lawn. So far here's what I came up with: I obviously have too much time on my hands. I'm thinking of planting a strip of wildflowers parallel with the road as sort of a living border. I still want to plant a Concord grape plant next to the existing plant. Then maybe use the blueberry bushes ( I only have three coming so far, will get more at another time ) to fill in some lawn and make the area not so boxy and organized. I'll want everything spaced so I can mow around and between with the rider as much as possible of course. I'm still on the fence about the spaces between the raised beds ( 1-4 ) My plan was to lay cardboard down and then pine wood shavings for mulch over that to keep from having to mow between them. I sprayed the area down with a natural weed killer ( vinegar, salt and Dawn dish soap ) which does the job but then I'd have to spray it regularly whereas with the mulch, I wouldn't have to. Plus, I have a ton of cardboard that I've been saving for that job.
I got things started yesterday by getting some Romaine lettuce in earlier than usual for a better yield before it gets too hot. I also pulled the landscape fabric off of what was the potato bed. I wanted to see how well it worked for keeping the weeds from growing since I harvest potatos earlier than the other stuff. It was a good experiement and as you can see, the soil is pretty weed free. The cardboard is a new experiment. I hate mowing between the beds so my plan is to lay down cardboard and then cover it with pine shavings for mulch. I chose cardboard over landscape fabric because it's natural and weeds wont grow through or on it like they will landscape fabric. The pavers are just there to hold the cardboard down for now. I hit the dirt with a cultivator thing I was given and the plan for the former potato bed is to plant strawberries. Soil is looking pretty good. I'm hopig to maybe get the potatoes in the garden bags this weekend. We'll see if the weather cooperates.