Gardening Progress: Raised Beds Built, X-Garden Seeded

We've settled on a two pronged strategy for gardening this year. First, we're going to do it Right, and with the help of our friend Dawn, put in some Square Foot Gardens. Then, because I can't leave well enough alone, we're going to have an X-garden for me to play in.

I sent Shira and Dawn off to Home Depot for the Square Foot Gardening supplies and this is how they returned:

I helped pull the wood out of the car and organize it a bit:

I then went back inside and returned some time later to see this sight:

That's Dawn using her power drill, because mine is too small. I retreated back inside to save my manhood (and work on another project). When I returned, the building phase was complete! That wasn't hard at all. (Actually, the trip to Home Depot took far longer than the construction phase of the raised beds).

Later this week we'll pick up the right mix of soil, some plants and we'll be on our way!

Now it was time for the X-Garden. Previously, I had ordered a Big Bag Bed. which while pricier than the small bit of lumber needed for the raised beds, does require zero effort setup (and no mind-losing trip to Home Depot!). I filled it with 9 bags of Nature's Care Raised Bed Soil. It's what Home Depot had, and fit the low effort theme of the X-Garden.

I planted the following seeds: Milkweed (think of the butterflies!), Quinoa, Amaranth, carrots, beans, Borage, Wild Purslane and Golden Berry (aka: Cape Gooseberry).

Will anything grow? Who knows! For now I've got very low expectations. Here's how X-Garden looks once filled and seeded:

As long as we were at Home Depot, we could resist picking up some decorative flowers as we like to do every year. And as usual, it's T & E gardening all the way.

Definitely fun times, and I'm psyched to see the Square Foot Gardening approach coming together.