By Keith and Heather Nicol
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| A sandbox became our first raised bed |
The Comox Valley
of B.C. is blessed with a great climate for growing many vegetables and we have been
having fun watching things grow, especially since Covid 19 has forced us to
stay around home alot more. The other day we came across a sign showing free
wood on a neighbors driveway and since the wood was mostly 2” by 4”s in various
lengths (3 feet to 16 feet) we thought this would be perfect for increasing our
garden space this year. The wood had been used to crate the metal roofing they had just had installed on their house. We love repurposing wood and when we moved in to our house
3 years ago we emptied a sandbox in the back yard and it became one of our
first raised garden beds.
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| Our most recent addition to our garden |
All of our other raised beds have been made from 2 by
4’s that we have been given or found for free. These beds grow all of our
lettuce, swiss chard, kale , argula and basil and tomatoes that we enjoy
through the spring, summer and early fall. This year we stopped buy lettuce from
the store on May 20 and are really enjoying the ‘garden mix’ seed pack we
bought this year that has red lettuce, green lettuce, kale, endive, argula and
other greens all in one seed pack. No need to pick from different rows to get a
great varied salad.
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| Another raised bed built 2 years ago |
Our 2” by 4”
beds are 3 boards deep and we used plastic to line the inside of the boards. Along
the bottom of the bed we put down a layer of cardboard to keep the soil in the
box and the weeds trapped below it. The only wood we bought was the trim to
cover the plastic at the top of the beds. So to keep the cost of home gardening
down think about using discarded wood for your raised beds. Stay safe and hope you have a great growing
season.
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| Our tomato garden with garlic along the front of the raised bed made from 2 by 4's |
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