This year, I want to add in more raised beds for vegetable and greens growing. I have plenty of flowers with the lavender and herb garden so think I should take full advantage of all the pollinators that will be here. We started building the Dragonfly beds in our new garden area.  This is an area that we put down about 2 feet deep of bark to try to suppress the weeds about three years ago.  It was very weedy and sandy soil that the goats, sheep and llamas over the years had grazed.  Very poor soil quality with some wetter marsh like spots.. but little soil nutrition. It really didn’t grow very good grass or weeds. Now the area is full of soil that is decomposed bark mulch…rich and earthy. It is full of happy fat worms.  

I am ready to plant vegetables and greens this year with a small amount of root vegetables. I need to eat organic to avoid pesticides and sprays that really make me sick. We just do not have much of a selection of organic food around here.  I don’t even have confidence to buy from most local farmer markets because of the heavy pesticide usage in this area. So I want to be more self sufficient with my food.  I grow without pesticides and sprays.  I pull my weeds by hand…or not…if they get ahead of me!  We have 8 beds now that are 4 x 8 feet each.  That is 32 square feet in each bed.  I don’t know a ton about square foot gardening yet but I am learning. With the 4 x 8 beds, I can get a lot of square foots in there!!! 32 squares per bed and I hope it will look like this later this summer.

Originally, I had planned on sealing the wood with linseed oil until I researched how long it takes to dry.  It can be days or weeks.  Apparently linseed oil doesn’t give it any water protection and encourages mold and mildew growth.  Well that won’t due since I am allergic to mold.  I didn’t know that linseed is mainly for “enhancing” the look of the wood.  Oh well, just going to use the wood as it is. No treatment, paint, or sealer.  It will rot eventually but that is part of a permaculture garden and for now it will work.

There are several smaller spaces to create some cold frames out of some old windows.  We will make those later in the year for fall.  I hope to garden through the winter with some winter greens and root veggies.  

I really like the dragonfly look and they went together pretty easy.  It takes minutes to set up if you just drop the boards in.  Charlie used screws at the corners to keep it more stable and together.  That was really helpful on the uneven surface of the bark.  Easier to add some screws than try to level the surface.  Aren’t they just cool looking?  I have enough corners to do another 18 beds but I ran out of space there. 

Before we could set the beds up and build, I had to get a few hundred raspberry plants out of the way.  These are escapees from my raspberry bed.  Apparently the raspberries really appreciated that composted bark mulch and happy fat worms.  My raspberry bed is edged in stone, but they still escaped.  Lucky for me, I had a couple local gals that wanted to put in pretty sizeable raspberry patches.  After a couple of hours one morning with a shovel, buckets and a tarp…both ladies left happy with a whole lot of raspberries to plant. I was thrilled my new garden area cleared.  I still have some left that may need to find new homes.  We are certain to have missed several all over and I will find them once the leaves start growing.  Everything is brown right now so it is harder to spot ones that we missed.  I think at least 200 or more were taken out!!!  I am happy to share.

I plan on harvesting a lot this year to freeze for winter use.  I really like some fresh raspberries as first choice in my goat yogurt.  Frozen ones thawed out are a second place choice and good for during the winter time.  I kinda got tired of BUYING frozen raspberries for my yogurt this winter. It doesn’t make sense when I can just freeze my own. Mine taste better anyways!

I know there are many ways to preserve them into jams, pies, and preserves. I won’t have a lot of time when they need to be harvested. Happens at same time with the plums and lavender all going crazy.  But freezing them is so simple and it fits my favorite way to use them.  

I am a little worried about planting a lot of greens, veggies, and root veg.  I worry that I can’t keep up with harvesting them because I didn’t manage the plums, raspberries or apples last year very well.  What do I do if I get buried under a mountain of food?

I have the learning curve of canning and putting up the harvest. I am tempted to do a lot of freezing this year in the interest of time but our freezers are already full. We lose electric power off and on also…so there is that.  Canning the green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and a few others would make better sense and protect the harvest better.  I am focusing more on things we specifically use and can be long stored without preservation.  I aspire to learn to can and have a pantry that looks like this one day.  Isn’t it pretty, all lined up neatly!

Canning skills were something my mother and grandmother knew. I have some experience helping and watching them as a child.  But I have to re learn those skills and that takes time.  I have done water bath before with applesauce and with tomatoes.  NOT together in the same jar…ewwwhhh. Really?  I think once I made bread and butter pickles too.  All of that was at least 15 years ago and only my first time.

Pressure cookers scare the dickens out of me.  It is a good thing Charlie pressure cooks all the time. He likes to make hearty soups, broths, and stews.  Maybe between us, we can figure it out.

These raised beds were relatively simple and quick to assemble. Drop the wood boards into the slots and wallah. If you are on an uneven surface and can’t really level it easily, the couple of extra screws in the corner boards does wonders to keep it all square. I added in some composted bark around the inside edge to fill in any gaps to the ground before adding in my organic soil mix. Tadah and done. I like simple.