The Home Gardening Project
Foundation
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The Home Gardening Project |
How the Gardens are Built
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| At the project storage site, organic, weed-free soil is loaded into
the pickup. Next to load will be the lumber for building the raised beds, then 2x2's for the trellis, stakes to anchor each bed to the earth, and tomato cages, string, seeds, starts, wheelbarrow and shovels. When they drive off, they'll have a complete vegetable garden on the back of the truck. |
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| A few seasons later, we were able to add a great labor-saving device to the truck: the hydraulic dump bed. Metal "wings" at the tailgate of the bed channel the heavy soil into a waiting wheelbarrow. Most gardens go into the back yard, so the person with the wheelbarrow may have to deal with steps, slippery mudholes, junker cars, and narrow sagging gates. It takes 18 wheelbarrow loads to fill three beds, each 5 feet by 8 feet. |
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| Here is the finished garden, ready for the garden project participant to plant. The gift of a garden should have a finished appearance and show that care has been taken to build it well. Each frame is nailed together, then moved to be "square with the world"---lined up with the other frames, all the same distance apart, and lined up square with the nearest building or fence. After the beds are filled with soil each one is raked smooth, and soil swept off the top of the boards. The new gardener is instructed in the use of the raised-beds, and the practice of block and successive planting. |
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This site is maintained by Cynthia
Cheney |
