First Try Not a Success

After a few weeks we were starting to see signs that our attempt was a failure. Most of the plants showed stunted growth or no growth at all. I feel this was caused by a few factors.

1) location, the corner of the yard is shaded by the fence part of the day and likely does not have adequate air circulation for some types of plants.

2) Soil, at the time we were not aware of the benefits or organic gardening. We did not test our existing soil before hand and used a miracle-gro top soil loaded with chemical fertilizer. As you can see from the picture we did not use enough top soil to even begin to see the benefits of a raised bed.

3) Timing, we likely planted too early for our zone.

So it is back to the drawing board.
-Jon

First Try Did Not Turn Out So Well

The Beginning

My family always had a garden when I was a kid. I remember shoveling top soil out of my dad's truck and spreading in around the garden. When we got into the new house I felt like I should start one again. For our first attempt I went to a local big box store and purchased 1 10' 2"X8" and 1 16' 2"X8" both were cut in half and screwed together to build our first raised bed. I purchased 2 bags of Miracle Gro garden soil and mixed it with whatever native soil was on sight. Below is the result. -Jon

Backyard After Our First Raised Bed Was Constructed

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting our blog! My name is Brittany and my boyfriend's name is Jon. We just moved into a house in March and took up urban gardening as a hobby that we have come to find we enjoy very much! Jon and I are in no way professional landscapers, horticulturist, or gardeners by any means. Most of our ideas we have come out of no where and we research the questions we have online. Here we will explain what we have built, what we built it out of and any other gardening tips we may have, in hopes that you might have an easier and fulfilling gardening experience like we have! Thanks again for visiting and don't forget to subscribe! - Brittany! 

One small step...