Hi GPODers!
As this growing season comes to an end, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the garden projects we completed this year and start planning the work to be done next year. Thankfully, Tami Bredeson thoroughly documented the process of building a gorgeous raised bed garden with her husband and has shared this inspiring project when we could all use a kick of creativity. These raised beds required a decent amount of planning and a lot of heavy lifting, but the result is a beautiful structure that produces an abundance of food and flowers while keeping hungry herbivores from making a meal of all this hard work.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I constructed this fenced garden of raised beds. I grow vegetables and cut flowers in the beds, and the fence keeps the rabbits away as well as providing great structure for plant support. We filled the beds with 100% grape compost the first year, because we had loads of it. We added 25% peat in year two, which really lightened up the soil. We now have 10- to 12-inch carrots instead of 3-inch carrots! We put down cardboard under all the beds and will add crushed granite to the paths between the beds later this fall.
Raised beds require a number of expensive materials, and anyone who has built and filled a lot of raised beds in one growing season knows how quickly those materials add up, so it’s a huge win when you have compost and/or healthy soil on hand. Tami had tons of grape compost—spent grape skins and seeds from wineries and vineyards turned into an extremely nutrient-dense compost—that would need some more amendments to create the proper growing conditions, but would be an excellent base to continue building her rich garden soil.
Once all of the materials are acquired, building gets underway. Tami and her husband created a simple design that is functional and elegant. Raised beds line the perimeter, perfectly protected by fencing that will go along the outside wall, and entry arches can double as supports for climbing plants.
Tami and her husband used lots of cardboard to suppress the existing lawn and weeds, some of which it looks like they also got from a local winery. What a great reminder that there are some unexpected places, rather than your conventional garden center, that you might find cheap (or even free!) material for your garden projects.
Once compost goes in, the real fun can begin!
And in no time, this bare garden structure is now full of life. As shade descends on this spot, the already beautiful garden transforms into a plant paradise that anyone would enjoy immersing themselves in.
Thank you so much for sharing the process of creating this gorgeous garden structure with us, Tami! While many solutions to rabbits or deer in the garden often aren’t the most elegant, your creation shows that functionality can coexist with design, to delight and add even more interest.
What creative solutions have you come up with in your garden that actually added to its appeal? Do herbs keep hungry critters away while also producing a delicious harvest? Were fences a necessary evil that you dressed up with climbing plants? Let us know in the comments, or consider sharing your garden projects with Garden Photo of the Day. Follow the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.
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