16 October 2011

Back Veggie Garden Beds Finished

This weekend, we got up the gumption to move dirt and lift limestone to complete the redesign of the back vegetable garden beds. We've now gone completely from the three rotten wooden raised beds to four small squares of limestone.

I'm extremely satisfied with these. Their form brings some much needed design structure to the back utility area, and the limestone and square grid pattern really plays well with the rest of the garden design.

For now, we're testing out having the Mexican lime tree in the center, but that may change with weather and whimsy.

Truthfully, part of the motivation for redoing these beds (aside from the rotting wood of the old beds) is to reduce the amount of space that we have devoted to growing vegetables. Veggies are just really difficult and time consuming to grow, and though I still delight in having fresh, homegrown veggies, I want to limit their pull on my life.

Now, we have a bed or two for seasonal veggies, one devoted to herbs, and I'd like the last of these to be devoted to flowering perennials, both for using as cut flowers and as a nursery bed to grow seedlings to place in other parts of the garden.

This is also really a step forward in making the garden even more drought proof. Veggies require a lot of water and the old wood beds dried out very quickly. Hopefully, these smaller, lower beds edged by water-retaining stone and planted with more drought tolerant herbs and perennials will lesson our load.


6 comments:

Steph@RamblingWren said...

Great idea. I really like the limestone border around the beds. Do you have crushed granite or pea gravel between the beds? I like crushed granite, but I heard it will scratch hardwood floors if you track into the house.

The Curious Holts said...

Yep. I'm over the veggie beds as well. I am growing lettuce and spinach as we plow through that, but no spring/summer beds ever again. I plan to grow zinnias in them. Millions of zinnias.

Nancy said...

Your beds look really nice. Have you thought about putting in a Olla? If I ever get my beds up and running that's what I want to do. I think it would save water and maybe keep my vegies going.

I just love your garden.

DY said...

I dig the simplicity and sharpness of these beds in relation to the softness of the background. I can't wait to see what comes of this.

To The Curious Holts: Zinia's are amazing, I planted some this season and even with our intolerable drought they looked amazing.

Lee said...

Zinnias? I'm in. I'm going to check them out.

To Rambling Wren: we went with pea gravel throughout the garden because the crushed granite can get stuck in shows and scratch the floors. It's also dustier, and we have dark hardwoods. I guess you could have a no shoes policy!

An olla? I've never heard of them, but that looks rad! Just read up on them here: http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2008/03/24/using-ollas/

Pam/Digging said...

Looks classic, Lee -- very nice, just like all of your projects. And it's interesting to hear your reasoning behind the smaller beds too.