You've made your bed now plant it

I had given y'all a little sneak peek of the raised bed project here and here. These weren't cheap by any means. I have no doubt they could have been done a lot cheaper had I been patient. But I'm not. And I wasn't. I am more of an instant gratification kinda girl  in regards to this. I don't currently have the skill set (or confidence) to build the cedar raised beds. And I sure as heck wasn't gonna wait on the hubbs to build them. So cedar raised bet kits were just fine by me. 

The beds were RIDICULOUSLY easy to assemble. I ended up with 2 different types because the big box stores were pretty much sold out. Beggars can't be choosers. One type is dovetail corners and you drive metal pins through to the ground (as shown  below). The other three have slats slide into a grooved corner block.

We figured out placement by using our existing raised bed as the center point. The hubbs  initially rototilled a 6x6  area. Then we went back in with a the hoe to pull out any clumps of weeds, large dirt clods and removed rocks/ debris. We used a rake to screed the soil as level as possible.

Next we put down 6 layers of  newspaper (lining the sides) which we wet to hold in place.

Add dirt

Once the beds were filled with soil we back-filled around the exterior sides. And then the best part...PLANTS!!

This is what it currently looks like with the beds in place. We didn't install the corner caps yet because I don't know if I want to add another tier to each bed.

These were my inspirations and SOMEDAY I will have the dream garden. 

http://firstadream.blogspot.com/2010/07/lusting-after-raised-bed-gardens.html

energyscapes.com

http://www.insideurbangreen.org/2011/01/raised-bed-garden-kits-plans-hardware-and-more.html  

Until then I will enjoy what I have, continue to imagine what it will become and savor the fruits-n- vegetables of our little piece of  garden-heaven.