Tuesday, February 11, 2014

4 in 14 January - Save

Save - Money. Produce is expensive.
I know this is a little late for my final 4 in 14 January post.....but sometimes life is hard and things have to wait. This post is especially close to my heart, more so than when we started this project, because it has to do with food. Food in our house has suddenly become the focus of almost every moment of every day. We have recently learned our little girl has a very serious disease that requires a very restrictive diet. She is doing well for now, but we are still adjusting.
Last year we got the idea that having our own garden would be fun. This stems mostly from the fact that our daughter visits my mom back east every summer and she has an extensive garden. The little one helps. So for our own little green-thumb adventure we started by clearing a space on the side of the house with excellent morning sun.

side yard

My husband was super helpful and built us a beautiful garden box that is nice and deep so that we have room for a good solid root bed. He used the big empty space on the pool deck to lay it out - so don't mind the strange water shots. We didn't have a flood. 
why are all my pictures sideways??
He read a few articles online from different sources. He combined all his research to come up with the best plan. He used redwood, and found tips to build it upside down and then use the posts to anchor it in the ground. He spent all day working to make sure it was straight and level, and even that the best faces of the wood grain were faced out to make it pretty. 

Since this new bed was so deep, it is going to take a few layers of soil to fill it properly. Here are the three bags he got me started with. 
As I said, this project is now much more dear to me heart. I am excited, scared, anxious, and overwhelmed at the idea of growing my own food. I guess everyone did it once upon a time. And we do already trade citrus with all the neighbors, as it grows in abundance here in Arizona. Hopefully my thumb is green enough. 

No comments:

Post a Comment