It begins...

So in April, after our road trip to California to visit Tim's family, we decided to build a raised bed to grow our own vegetables. I was inspired to do so from watching the documentary "Food, Inc.". Our son Ezekiel was born in January, and I really want to start him off on delicious and nutritious food, that won't weigh heavy on my conscience. I don't want to fill him with pesticides, and preservatives. He deserves better than that. Then I got to thinking...'Why do I put that stuff in MY body!?'. So it begins...

We ended up scoring a ford ranger bed worth of soil from a buddy, who was giving up his 'horticultural' endeavors! It was great dirt! Very dark, with Vermiculite, and lava rock for drainage. Went to Home Depot to pick up lumber. I wasn't really sure what type of wood I needed, so I asked the guy in the lumber department what would be best for a raised veggie garden. So he pointed me in the direction of the seemingly most expensive option. Pressure treated 2"x12" cedar boards. He said that it would be good because it wouldn't rot, and would be the best option. I trusted his advice, and had him cut 2 boards to 2-3' 2"x12"s, and 2-6' 2"x12"s, to build a 3'x6' 12" deep bed! After buying the wood, I realized it wasn't the right choice, because: 1. Pressure treated wood, was going to leach chemicals into my soil, and potentially contaminate my veggies. And 2. I didn't really need to have 12" of soil to grow my plants.  But since I had already had the boards cut, I figured they wouldn't let me return them. So we went home, and nailed the boards to build the bed, ripped up the sod, lined the bed with weed barrier to completely cover the wood on the inside, and filled the bed. It ended up looking very nice, and took us about a day of work, from going to Home Depot, to finishing the bed. I was surprised at how easy it actually was.

The next day, I went to Lowe's. (Had a bit of a bad taste in my mouth from the bad purchase and advice from Home Depot.) Picked up a bunch of veggie starts, ran home and got to planting! I planted using the Square Foot Gardening method. Even though I hadn't read the book yet. It was the beginning of April and still pretty cold, but planted everything with reckless abandon. Because of this, my Cucumber starts, Basil starts, and one of my tomato plants, did not survive.