And it Begins

I started by measuring and staking out where I want my garden.  I'm starting with 1 box but I will add others later, so I mapped out the whole first section so I would place the first box in the right place.

Each of my boxes will be 4'x8' with 2' between each box. I am digging down 2 feet so I can build a gopher barrier cage, something you can skip if you don't have gophers.  But you will still need to turn you soil either by hand or with a tiller.

I dug down about 6 inches before it was to hard to dig so I filled it with water and let it soak so I could dig again the next day.

While waiting I bought three 20 foot 10'x1"pine boards and I had Home Depot cut them into three 8' and two 4' pieces (now I will have one 8' piece for my next box already done.) Then I painted them with 4 coats of white outdoor enamel paint to protect them from water damage.

Ok, I know it looks like a grave but it really is the completed hole for my garden. 

I just completed the gopher barrier so I took the picture while while I was down in the hole.  I got a roll of galvanized steel mesh fencing from the Home Depot and cut and wired it together to fit inside of the hole.

 

I filled the first foot with plain soil without mixing in anything.

Because my soil is clay I added in a garden compost mix 1 part soil and 1 part compost and turned it in with a shovel.

Now I put my drip hose in.  I tacked it down with some galvanized wire to hold it in place.  You can see how bad the clay soil is. I watered down the soil and it settled a little bit so I added about an inch and didn't mix it in because I was so tired.  Next time I will just do it.  Well the worms will fix what I messed up.

I planted my tomatoes, chard, bell peppers, red lettuce, beets and marigolds to keep away pests. I also planted zucchini, yellow squaush and carrot seeds.

These are the Red Wiggler worms that I bought at our local nursery.  I dug down 1 inch several places throughout the garden and put a handful in and covered them up.

Now I start adding the grass clippings mixed with horse manure (that's what I have a lot of).  As the plants grow you keep placing the grass up higher and higher around them.  The grass will eventually be about 6 inches deep.  The worms will eat the clippings and turn it into rich soil.

Garden is doing great!  I've added more grass as the plants grow.  I've already picked the chard twice.

Carrots are coming up on the right side.

Here is my first harvest of chard. I Sautéed it with a little butter, olive oil and salt and pepper. Yum!

This is the first beet I picked from my garden.. It was the only one ready. The others are only half it's size.  

This is the beet I picked. It is a Chioggia beet that I cut it into slices. It taste so good raw that I'm not even going to cook it. I'm going to make a salad with the red lettuce that I just picked a some of my chard. And don't forget that you can also cook and eat the greens of this beet.

This is the red leaf lettuce that I picked today. I'll be making a salad for lunch. Yum!