Raised bed garden

I'm very blessed to have a husband that is so happy to please me...that sounds selfish but I don't mean that in a selfish way. I know that I don't ask for much usually, I'm pretty content most of the time. This past weekend and last night, however, Roger really put forth a lot of effort to make me happy even when he was tired and had planned to do something else instead. I appreciate him so much.

He built me raised beds for my garden. He nailed up stakes all along it and stretched and stapled chicken wire around them to keep the "rascally rabbits" away. I know that it pleased him just to please me...and that makes me really happy. I'm so grateful for the man that God gave me!

I have done a lot of research online about raised beds and I've also checked out other bloggers' thoughts and pictures about their gardens. (I love those Christian ladies and their gardens!!)

This year we are starting out fairly small and are hoping to add more next year and put up a little picket fence around the garden area. We have one raised bed that was in existence before that we usually plant tomatoes in and now we have two more just for green beans. The information that I got from a gardening site said that we can plant a lot more in a small space IF we used a better soil. Since I don't have an unlimited amount of money to spend, I have had to alter their "recipe" for the soil they recommended. I bought a very large bag of peat moss, some organic topsoil and some vermiculite. I then drove out to my parents' house and picked up a lot of two year old horse manure.(uhhh the manure is two years old, not the horse!! hahaha) I mixed all of it together and it looks like a very good soil to start my plants out in this year.

I know that it is a bit late in the year to start a garden but in this area of the country, I should have plenty of time to harvest a LOT of green beans as well as tomatoes. An old man that my dad knew years ago told him that in Indiana, if you put your seeds and plants out by the 15th of June, you still be able to "make garden..." So that was my goal...to have all my plants and seeds in the ground by the 15th.

I'm very excited about this new adventure. I don't think that this year will be terribly cost efficient although the soil and the additives really didn't cost much at all. The canning jars are a different story! However, I was very blessed to find canning jars at the Salvation Army for 1/2 the regular price a few weeks ago. Most of the small pint jars were 22 cents each and the quart jars were, I think, 43 cents each. I do have several boxes of jars from years ago that I have saved. I'm sure that I will still be saving some money this year even counting in the cost of the canning jars but the nutritional gain will be even better than the money saved. I know what is going in the jars and freezer bags! The following years, Lord willing, will be better years as far as the cost is concerned since I will have already spent the money for the jars and all I will have to do is buy the lids.

I DID splurge and buy some really cute jars for jellies! I made some orange marmalade last week and I have them lined up in one of my windows...just for now so that I can admire my work...(oh dear, is that pride? I don't mean for it to be...I just love looking at them!) I was planning to give the marmalade as gifts but my daughters are not at all fond of it although my husband and I love it. I've decided it is something that you love or you hate so I might just keep it for us and make and give strawberry or apple or grape jelly as gifts! I also tasted some incredible pepper jelly the other day!! Wow was it ever good! Very unusual!

There is a gentle rain falling on my little garden this morning...I felt like a new mother as I stood at my back door looking out at the little raised beds..."I hope they'll be alright!"

Well, I'm off to the store and to get a TB test for my part time job...so, as Tigger would say, TA TA FOR NOW!!