Our Raised Bed Vegetable Garden
A few months ago one of my followers ask me to post pictures of our vegetable garden. It is not a gigantic garden but plenty big for our needs.
My husband made the 4’ X 4’ and 1’ x 4’ raised beds and they have worked well for us. We lay last years straw between the rows to control the weeds. The first year we did this we used fresh straw and it germinated and all we did is weed all summer long! Lesson learned, always let it sit over the winter to kill off any possible growth.
Below are the plants in our garden. The only thing missing is the lettuce as it bolted when it got hot and is done for the season. It was where the bare spot is on the left bed above.
Cherry Tomatoes
Blueberry Bushes
Brussels Sprouts – something is eating them.
Okra
Jalapeño Peppers
Green Peppers – My husband tied up the pepper plants and didn’t know he tied up the pepper…lol
Tomatoes
Rhubarb
Cucumbers
The cucumbers always grow out of the raised bed. We have been picking four cucumbers every day from this raised bed.
Asparagus that I am done picking for the year and now has gone to seed.
Raspberries that are just starting to ripen.
This bed is my perineal herbs. I have sage, oregano, chives, thyme and lemon thyme.
This bed is my annual herbs. I use these the most so I planted two of each basil, rosemary and parsley.
Less than a week ago I cut back all of my herbs and dehydrated the six containers above. The chives I set in a glass with a little water and put them in the refrigerator as I use them mostly for garnish.
This fenced in area is our compost area. We dump all of our vegetable ends, peels etc. into the compost area. Every year we get volunteer plants from throwing out vegetables with seeds. It usually is always tomatoes but one year we grew spaghetti squash there. We let the plants grow because we get the best tasting tomatoes from the entire garden out of the compost area.
Well that’s our garden. We have learned the best way to make it the easiest to care for, for us. I hope you enjoyed the garden as much as I did sharing it!
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Categories: My Garden
Wow, what an amazing garden Diane. I stopped growing one now that I am alone, but it was never anything like yours.
Thanks Sheree! Why not have a couple of pots with some single plants in them? That way it’s easy to take care of and you still get some produce.
What a great garden! We don’t have straw round here, so I’ll look for something similar. We have a never-ending problem with aphids, so my tomatoes always die. Love your blueberry plants!
You need to buy praying mantis eggs and put them in your garden. They love to eat aphids and other pests. Thanks!
Magnificent! I am *so* envious Diane. Nothing nicer than home grown.
Aww thanks Sheree. I like that we grow them organic and with the price of produce…it’s free! hahaha
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Beautiful gardens! Absolutely beautiful! Your harvest has to be robust and enjoyable! I really enjoyed seeing your gardens!
Thank you Nancy. Last year we planted cucumbers in two raised beds and had over 100 cucumbers! We decided to just plant in one raised bed this year. Lol
Wow! Raised beds look cool. Will show these pics to my wife, cheers!
Thank you my husband made them quite a few years ago. We will be replacing the boards with the composite boards as the wood ones go bad.
Absolutely lovely garden. Although I’ve always considered okra to be a weapon from some alien species visiting from another galaxy.
Hahahaha I really love okra but only when it is cooked right with NO slime! Thank you. 💕
amazing and that’s a lot of work, but obviously a labor of love. i can’t wait to see the recipes you create with all of this bounty.
Thanks Beth and yes, definitely a labor of love. It is so rewarding to pick the veggies, fruit and herbs. I use to have a whole lot more but have downsized with age…lol
Impressive! Are you sure you are not a farmer?
OH NO!!!! I can’t take the disappointment when we plant and get a frost and have to replant. Or it rains and rains and they rot or die. Then there is the bugs…..well I think you get my point! 🤣 You learn to really respect the farmers when you have your own garden.
Lovely! How can anyone, seeing these beautiful plants, not believe in a Creator?
Exactly! He provided everything we needed to grow these beauties!
Absolutely lovely to a girl who has one parsley plant on the counter these days. We’ve had raised beds at other homes and really enjoyed our labor. Asparagus…yep, so good but a pain with those sticky plants!
Thanks for sharing!
That’s one thing I did wrong. When we made our garden about 27 years ago, I planted the asparagus on the south side of the garden. I had no idea how it grew or how big it would get, over the years, when it went to seed. Well it gets so tall that it blocks the sunlight on the north side of the asparagus so we lose an area we can plant due to no sunlight…ugh. I could move it but there is way too many plants. I think it’s great you have parsley on the counter! Thanks Laurel❣
Wow, you have a serious green thumb, Diane!! Nice work. 😊
Thanks John but it is a joint effort with my husband. I definitely can’t take all the credit for this one!
Very beautiful garden.
What’s the reason for tying the green peppers? I’d guess to control the growth? 🤓
No my husband was tying up the plants and didn’t realize he tied up the pepper! 😂🤣😂 Thank you❣
I see! 😁
Oh myyyy, wish I was your neighbour. 😄 Love your green patch and fresh produce. It’s amazing
Well if you were we would definitely share with you! Thank you Nisha!
you are so lucky! it looks incredible!
Awww thank you we sure do enjoy it.
Beautiful garden and yummy recipes!
Thank you so much you have been a faithful follower!
Thanks we have had a garden ever since moving here 27 years ago.
It looks wonderful Diane!
Awww thank you… coming from an expert!
What a beautiful and bountiful garden!
Thank you it is a labor of love…and hunger! 🤣
Lovely garden! Great idea using last year’s straw!
Yes Robin we definitely learned that the hard way! Thanks!
Amazing garden, Diane💜 Wish I had your green thumb talent.
Thank you Jonetta but this is a joint effort with my hubby. Teamwork goes a long way…lol
You are doing a great job, dear Diane 🙂 much work every day, too – amitiés 🙂
Thank you! When winter comes we take a deep breath and relax…lol
Hi Diane,
I love your garden . Mary
Thank you Mary. It took many years of trying different ways to get it to where it works for us.
Your garden is lovely. the raised beds and mulching sure does cut down on the work involved.
Thank you Ruth! We found the straw to be the easiest and cheapest way to mulch. It is so nice to not get muddy walking in it and to control the weeds.
It’s a great garden Diane…how are the hostage negotiations going for the pepper?
Hahahaha I thought I would die when I saw that. He said “Well I tied it up from the opposite side and didn’t see it.” Hostage wise, it didn’t make it past the salad plate.
Hahaha!
So lovely to see all the fresh herbs and vegetables from your garden .They look great!
Thank you we sure do enjoy them.
Diane, that is a beautiful and stunning vegetable, fruits and herb garden!!! I just enjoyed reading this post with my hubby who is the gardener in our house. What a joy it must be to have all of these crops. Do you even need to buy produce at the groceries?
Very awesome to see okra. I love okra. It’s a vegetable we had growing up in the Philippines and my mom makes a simple but hearty stir fry with Chinese green beans, squash and ground beef.
Thanks for sharing this. We really enjoyed the photos!
Thank you Ab! Yes we buy a lot of produce because there is such a short life of each of these veggies and fruit. I use to can a lot so we could enjoy them longer. We planted sweet corn one year and fenced it in. Had a beautiful crop and the day before we were going to pick it the racoons climbed the fence and cleaned us out. Never planted it again…lol I love Okra too but not my husband. I make a meal out of a big pan of it. Your moms recipe sounds amazing!
Raccoons and squirrels are a pest! But looks like you have nicely fenced your crops in to protect them. Canning sounds like fun. We’re not quite at that level of production over here. 🙂
Lovely garden Diane! Love the way you have grouped them together. Interesting to see how you have spread the hay in between to prevent the weeds (Awesome idea). Okra does not seem to be an okra plant. Dehydrating the herbs is great! Learned a lot from your post today! Thank you and keep them coming!!
Thank you SGR! The okra were planted late and will get about 4 feet tall. We sent for seeds and they never came so my husband found some plants in late June and planted them for me as I am the only one that eats them. Thank you 💗
so maybe a different variety then.. thanks for correcting Diane..!
That was amazing Diane – that is a huge garden and a lot of work I am sure. This Friday I have a post about the community gardens at Heritage Park. There were some raised garden beds – and those gardens had really taken off where the other gardens with straw over it were still fairly small. I thought it was interesting as to the straw. I saw my neighbor bought a bale of hay one time to use for harvest time to put pumpkins on in her front garden. We had a warm Fall and it was germinating before it was time to take it down. She uses the bale of hay and breaks it up for under her creche. So, here she put the creche up with straw filled with grass and snow all around – looked different to be sure.
Thank you Linda my husband does a lot with the garden. He does all of the watering too which is a win win for me! It was a shock to us when our fresh straw that we put down to stop the weeds created even more weeds! It was a good lesson as we never did that again…lol
That’s great Diane – the watering is a big deal. Too much they get wet feet and soggy – not enough, they don’t grow. Hopefully you’ve been getting all these torrential rain storms we’ve been having … the lawn is usually crispy and brown after all the hot days, but not this year!
As usual we have missed most of them. Happy to have missed the wind they packed but the rain would have been nice.
The rain was pretty intense and the grass is as green and lush as in the Spring, despite all the over-90 degree days. I was happy we missed those 60+ winds too. We were supposed to have a few storms today but so far they have not happened. That’s fine by me – I’m no fan of storms.
I don’t like brussels sprouts. I’d be glad something else is eating them! The rest looks a real success.
Hahahahaha my husband feels the same way…not me!!! Lol
Super beautiful garden.
Awww thank you so much!
welcome.
Beautiful garden, we have a very very teeny tiny balcony space where we grow tomatoes, chilies, and some herbs with flowers and succulents 😀😀
Thank you! Isn’t is amazing how much you can grow in a tiny spot? It is just as rewarding too! Sounds like you are doing it right.
Yes, we got so many Jalapeños 😍😍
I pickled it and we used it for 6 months 😁😁
Thanks ☺️
What a great idea. I am going to make jalapeño jelly or jam this year with mine. Love jalapeños especially stuffed. I have even dehydrated and powdered it to add to food all year long. What a great crop you have!
Jelly or jam!! Sounds interesting ☺️
We also make deep fried stuffed peppers dipped in chickpea flour batter😋😋😁😁
Yummy! I have never had them deep fried. I cut mine in half and stuff them with a cream cheese mixture and bake them too.
Beautiful! I love your garden.
Thank you Gwen!
Love your garden!
Thank you Laci!
Nice job with this garden. It looks like so much work, but you’ve got a good system down. Enjoy everything.
It was a lot of work setting it up but it is so easy now. Thank you very much!
Well done, Diane!!
My husband gets a lot of credit too. Joint effort on this one. Thank you Christy!
Oh wow a fantastic
And the dehydrated herbs look great
And so fresh to make your own that way!
I use so many herbs all year long. The herbs at the store sit on the shelf for so long. It’s nice knowing how old mine are. Thank you for your nice comment!
🙂
Oh my, what a lovely garden! And what a great harvest you’ll have there 😋😋 Beautiful!
Thank you we really look forward to it every year.
Home grown is always healthy! What a beautiful and lovely garden you have! 😍
Thanks so much! 🌺🌸🌷💐
You have such a beautiful garden!!! I can’t wait until we finally get to move so I can have a garden. There’s nothing like a homegrown tomato!
It’s funny because tomatoes seem to be the first thing we planted. Every year our garden got bigger and bigger! lol
I am in love with your vegetable and herb garden 😍
Awww thank you! It took many years to figure out what works with very little weeding.
Love your raised garden beds you built. Your priduce looks like theiring growing great. I too wish to have my own DIY garden one day.
Thank you! Once you start a garden you will never quit!
I believe it🙂
I love your vegetable garden, it is stunning. We have a vegetable garden at home and you can’t beat homegrown vegetables 😋.
Thank you Helen! Gardens are a labor of love for sure!
Wow!!! I will try it😍😍😍
Worth every bit of effort Shaheen.
Wow such a beautiful vegetable garden! 😀 I love the blueberries and herbs! 💕
I take care of the asparagus, rhubarb, blueberries, raspberries and herbs. My husband does the rest. So guess which ones are my favorite too…lol Thank you!!! ❤️
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Gorgeous garden! This is what I aspire to and will probably never manage lol Thank you for sharing 🙂
It was a lot of work getting to this point but once you do it’s worth it! Thank you!
Well, you’ve done an amazing job!
Awww thank you!
Just being honest 🙂
I’m a die-hard fan of greens and fresh veggies! I love your garden. I hope when I have a permanent home myself, I will have the space to build something like this.
PS: saving this post!
Thank you! Even if you don’t have a large yard there are so many ways to have fresh greens. Grow them In plant bags, flower beds, containers etc. I hope you get your garden soon,
Oho this is mindblowing garden with almost all that you require for cooking.I wish I could visit it for once.Thanks a lot for sharing.🌹👍🙏
Thank you! It is so rewarding to walk out and pick our own.
What an amazing garden. I know it is a lot of work, but I am still jealous! It is beautiful and I am sure you will enjoy the home ripened tastes!
Thank you so much!
Wow, how many years have you had that asparagus? It’s so bushy!
Over 25 years and it gives me tons of asparagus. It’s gone to seed in the picture. I stopped picking it the first week in June.
You’re going to have a beautiful crop this year!
Thank you we are enjoying everything now.
Beautiful!
Thank you so much! ❤️