Our Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

130 Comments

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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.

 

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Cherry Tomatoes

 

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Blueberry Bushes

 

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Brussels Sprouts – something is eating them.

 

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Okra

 

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Jalapeño Peppers

 

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Green Peppers – My husband tied up the pepper plants and didn’t know he tied up the pepper…lol

 

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Tomatoes

 

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Rhubarb

 

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Cucumbers

 

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The cucumbers always grow out of the raised bed. We have been picking four cucumbers every day from this raised bed.

 

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Asparagus that I am done picking for the year and now has gone to seed.

 

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Raspberries that are just starting to ripen.

 

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This bed is my perineal herbs. I have sage, oregano, chives, thyme and lemon thyme.

 

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This bed is my annual herbs. I use these the most so I planted two of each basil, rosemary and parsley.

 

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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.

 

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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!

http://www.InDianesKitchen.com

Categories: My Garden

130 Comments »

  2. 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!

    Liked by 3 people

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    • 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.

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  10. 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!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • 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❣

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  25. 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!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • 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!

      Liked by 1 person

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      • 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. 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

  26. 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!!

    Liked by 4 people

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  27. 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.

    Liked by 2 people

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    • 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

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • 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!

        Liked by 1 person

      • 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.

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  45. 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!

    Liked by 1 person

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