Tales from Amy's Garden, Parte Uno

Veggie gardening has been a "learn from your mistakes" experience for me. Last summer, we made the assumption that if you stick something in the ground, it'll grow. See, that's usually true around these here parts. For whatever reason, though, the Great Garden Experiment of 2007 failed to thrive. We think it was probably a combination of crappy soil and not enough sunlight in places where there should theoretically be sunlight (i.e. the fence cast shadows that we didn't quite predict).

I planted 11 kinds of heirloom tomatoes last summer, and this was my entire yield:


This was the sad main plot at its peak:


This year, we weren't messing around. We picked a spot in the yard that we were confident would stay sunny, and started in on my first construction project ever: a raised bed! Andy did a lot of research, and after some antics at Jerry's (including customizing wood length to fit in the Prius) and an entire weekend's worth of manual labor, we were ready to plant.

Future site of raised bed:


Wood drying after I stained it:


Project Supervisor:


Stay tuned for Parte Dos of Tales from Amy's Garden......