Our Raised Gardens

One of our first projects last year at our new house was installing our raised garden beds. My dad so graciously build them for me. We installed four garden beds that are roughly 4 feet by 10 feet long. Awhile ago I a saw a photo of in ground beds with pavers in between them and I loved the look. We decided to use that as inspiration and installed pavers around our garden beds.

We dug up the sod and put down a layer of class five gravel. We then started laying the pavers. We purchased these from Lowe’s. There are no pavers directly under each garden bed, only the border. I have absolutely loved having these pavers. It makes mowing so much easier. It is also nice to walk in-between them. Weeds are very minimal. I spray a homemade mixture of salt and vinegar to keep weeds from growing between the pavers.

Once the pavers were in done, we set the raised beds in place. We used the sod, extra branches and grass clippings to fill the bottom of the beds. We filled the remaining portion with garden soil and compost.

These raised beds have made gardening so much more enjoyable. They are easy to maintain and I was able to plant as soon as the weather allowed this spring. Our plants are flourishing, especially the tomatoes. I have never had tomato plants as large before! So many of my neighbors have asked about them and my dad has even had orders placed for raised garden beds as a result!