Winter Garden Work

Today, the winter portion of this title refers more to the calendar than to the outside temperature. Despite the huge snow fall in the Northeast, we are gliding through winter with temps in the high 50"s. This gave us the opportunity to get out in the garden and complete another stage in our preparation for spring and planting our garden.

The latest addition to our garden is the completion of two raised beds. We plan to do the rest over the next couple of months so we don't over extend the check book. Each bed is 12 feet long and three feet wide made of 2X8's. We don't use pressure treated lumber as we are wary of the chemicals used to preserve them leaching into the ground and ending up in our food. We'll replace them every couple of years rather than risk it.

We have 6 other raised beds of the same size that need to be "boarded" up as well as a large space at the bottom of the garden that will house more  beds as well. A more permanent fence will have to wait. However, we will have to add a strand of wire across the top with some stuff hanging from it to dissuade the deer from visiting our garden. We saw 8 just outside the garden this morning. Of course, they'll be gone by the time deer season comes around again this fall.

Finally, we added a little bit of class to our gate. We had some metal leaves used as decoration in making wrought iron fences that we painted and attached to the front of the gate.