Raised Bed 4 and 5

I convinced Amber that working in the garden was good family fun, so we all went to work this morning. The weather was beautiful. Sunny and cool, but not cold. Perfect weather for working outdoors.


First off, Bryson and I made a trip up to McKinney to the Gebos store. I love this store. Bryson was pretty impressed too. I taught him some new manly things, like tires, bolts, plumbing fittings, and air compressors. We made it out of there with what we came for (alfalfa hay) and more.

This is raised bed number 4 filled with screened dirt. It is beautiful.

Amber and Bryson spread out a layer of hay.

Then wetted it all down and added a few layers of wet newspaper.

Then added some cedar mulch on top of that.

This is raised bed number 5.

I hope I have time to get raised bed number 6 done tomorrow. We’ll see.

I’ve never tried the hay/newspaper approach before. Last year, I placed a thick layer of plastic down, then mulch on top of that. The problem with that is that it does not provide any way for organic matter to get into the soil, and the plastic sheet isn’t exactly environmentally friendly. The idea behind the hay is that it will attract/feed the earthworms. The newspaper should provide enough of a barrier to prevent weeds from coming up, and it is biodegradable itself. I used the cedar mulch just because I had it on hand. It might be better to use another layer of hay on the top, just because the cedar mulch will take many years to break down. I’m going to start using many of the methods of the square foot gardening. I want to avoid turning over the soil very often and start adding lots of organic matter to the soil to improve it and avoid too many chemicals.