If you check in on us today on IG you may have saw a little progress we made today on our new garden area. Last year we took a break form gardening because… well a cute little man named Cope came into our lives. Throughout summer we kept saying how much we missed it, but fall when all the pretty pumpkins and squashes would be ready for harvest, we were really sad. So first chance we got, we moved a little portion of our vegetable garden closer to the house to better keep an eye on it and make it more accessible from the house. Here is where we are today!

Before we talk about the garden beds we made, I want to talk about the area we cultivated before we put the beds in. So Jose cut out the sod with a manual sod cutter. We rolled that out of the way to reveal the top soil. Normally we would rototill this area, but we have underground sprinkling in this area, and really want to take advantage of a routine self watering schedule for our crops. Using a hoe and a trenching shovel we dug in to the top soil another 2 to 3 inches. We will add that top soil back in but once we lay the beds in place we wanted to add some organic matter to help with drainage and structure of our clay soil.

We trenched in another inch around the edge of our bare top soil, to allow for beds to rest in. This way the edge of our cut sod and trenched in area, will act as a wall, to keep our beds from bowing out with the weight and pressure of the soil from within.

The DIY garden beds are made out of 1″ x 8″ x 10′ cedar with a dimension of 2 feet by 10 feet. Nothing fancy when putting these together, just cut to length and screwed together at the edges. We did pre-drill these boards to help mitigate any cracking or splitting. For our soil we added to our preexisting clay soil was a pre-mixed, peat moss heavy, vegetable soil, along with some compost from our sheep. We simply built the boxes in place and then filled them with soil when they were in place.

The cool part about these boxes compared to other ones we built are the trellises we added. After moving the sheep around over the years, we had a few extra livestock fence panels laying around. So we placed them center of the bed and drove three t-post into the ground to attached the fence panels too. This was a great option for us, but also a great fit for the plants as they are structurally sound and won’t get pulled apart from our climbing plants. We already had these panels but they range anywhere from 14 to 18 dollars for a 8ft section. And T-Post are usually under 5 dollars per post.


With the trellises in we quickly planted our climbers. We added a full bed of a different variety of peas and a full bed of our smaller tomato varieties. The next beds we will cage our larger variety of tomatoes and our root vegetables. And lastly leave the last one or two beds for our sweet fruits. After all was said and done, we realized we wanted to add small section for just Cope. We were thinking some repeat vegetables we already have in our big beds, but something just for him to go pick and as he grows how fun, educational, and special it’ll be to have his own little garden beds. We are so excited.

Well that is a quick recap/update of our garden beds so far this year. We fully plan on cleaning up our old garden and getting out there for our flowers and other things, but all in time. Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today and every other day it means so much to our family. If you are fellow garden lover, what are you growing this year? I love learning what people find important for their gardens, to learn and maybe add new plants to ours. Thank you again for stopping by!
Our goal for our backyard is to have raised flower beds. I love how you broke down this DIY. I am always lookin for raised bed inspiration.
Beautiful! I’m in the beginning of building a salvaged window greenhouse and redoing raised garden beds myself! Just curious where did you find the metal plant markers? Such a unique idea!
Loving the vlogs! Thanks for sharing. Wish we had some good rain herein dry western Texas. Seems we only get wind and hailstorms with a splattering of rain.
Have a wonderful Memorial Day. Thank you for your service to our country Jose.
God bless ya’ll!
So much fun with Cope!! I know he is adopted but it is so interesting to me he looks like Jose! I know a few adopted kids that look like their adopted parents. I have 3 and only one looks like me..the other ones I was asked if I was the nanny!??? Its okay though.
It all look beautiful!
We plant in stock tanks – they work well for us. We added our bush beans to the rest of the veggies out there today. Thank you for your service Jose and thanks to you all for this blog. I really enjoy it.
I love the plant markers, do you mind sharing where you got those? I have raised gardens and I love them. It surprising how much produce to get and even able to share with the neighbors. I have enjoyed your book in fact I was on the preorder list from Amazon when you first announced. Thank you for sharing.
I loved this!!!
Thank you so, love catching up on all your doing, your sheep, and your sweet family. You have a beautiful world of your very own, God Bless you and have a happy Memorial Day weekend.
Hi Liz and Jose!
Your gardens are beautiful. Thanks for sharing the process and progress along the way. Gardens are a true labor of love! We have a raised garden on the side of our garage. I just had surgery, so planting will be a bit later than what we typically do. But, that’s okay! I have some small starters and can transplant them. My oldest son helped by clearing the garden. It’s great that you’re sharing this with Cope! From growing a garden to harvesting to eating, is all amazing!!! I think my older son truly appreciates it all.
Thank you for being so real and sharing! I have loved following you for years.
Hugs,
Erica