Week 1: Raised Garden Bed #1

Over the past couple of days I have been picking up the supplies I need to build my raised garden bed. I was able to salvage wood from my late grandfather's woodshed which is a big plus because not only am I re-using the wood but I saved money. I assembled the bed together with nails and added gardening cloth to the bottom to block weeds and to retain moisture.

After assembling the bed, I added a mixture of organic compost called Tank's Green Stuff, which is made locally, and soil conditioner called Happy Frog. Both were purchased from a local nursery called Green Things.

I found a neat store called EcoGro that specializes in aquaponics. They were having a sale on their winter starts so I picked up red kale, dino kale, red onion, white onion and artichoke. I then went to Green Things and picked up two different kinds of lettuce, kale and another artichoke plant.

I decided not to plant the artichoke in this bed because of how big they get, so I plan on making a bed just for them later. After planting my starts, I still had more room in my bed after omitting the artichoke, so I planted radish, green onion and Swiss chard seeds that I already had. I will be getting mulch this week to cover the bed with in order to protect the soil from erosion.


Here is a picture of my garden bed with mulch. The mulch consists of cedar chunks that smell really nice, so nice I have attracted a lot of flies and bees! This is the first time I have used mulch in my garden beds. I can't believe I have never done this before, especially because of the heat we have here in Tucson that causes soil erosion. I have already seen an improvement in the moisture in my soil. The soil isn't dry and cracked on top because the mulch is keeping the moisture in. 

Now that the temperatures have dropped with some nights already in the 30's, the mulch will protect my soil from not only the sun but the cold temperatures at night.