Brandywine TomatoComing Soon to Kalyn’s Back Yard

Yesterday the weather in Salt Lake was sunny and in the 70s. All winter I’ve been looking forward to this time of year, and I vowed I’d finally get growboxes put into my garden. Long before raised bed gardening became rather trendy, my parents had what we called growboxes, and I’d wanted them, but they never rose to the level of “must have” on the list of home maintenance projects. When I mentioned I was definitely planning to get them this year, my generous and handy brother Mark offered to build them for me.

I shared updates about my garden on the blog in 2006 and again 2007, and I’m looking forward to writing about (and eating!) wonderful fresh garden produce again this year. What’s new with the raised beds (and the compost enriched topsoil which will be delivered on Friday) is that I’ll be able to grow more things from seed. My garden soil is rich but rocky and I’ve never grown many root crops or greens, although I have planted herbs from seeds. Because my garden has sprinklers all on one setting, I’m actually moving my tomatoes to beds on the side of my lawn, where I had some last year. This will let me have more vegetables and a bigger variety than previous years. If you’re an experienced gardener with recommendations for veggies to grow from seeds, please share your thoughts with me in the comments.

Mark started with a row of four boxes (4 feet by ten feet) going the length of the garden. Here the last box on the west is laid out, but stakes aren’t in yet.

Mark had the fabulous idea of putting a row of long thin boxes across the front for herbs. Some of my herbs didn’t make it through the extra cold and long winter we had this year, but I do have oregano, sage, thyme, and tarragon to transplant.

The first herb box is staked and finished. The rather scruffy looking plants you can see in the bottom corner of the photo are two of my herb plants seriously needing to be trimmed.

Here’s the wonderfully generous Mark posting for a photo. I love and appreciate him so much, and I’m so grateful I’m lucky enough to have such a great family!

Here’s a view of the finished project, with 200 square feet of growing space in the six growboxes. That’s a lot of garden, but I love growing things and giving them away to everyone I know. As you can see, the rest of my yard is looking pretty shabby right now, so I have a lot of work to do getting things trimmed and weeded. Stay tuned in the weeks to come for more updates about my new-and-improved garden.

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