ᐅ Garden Photos Chat Corner

@Fummelbrett!
You don’t have any garlic in your garden

I only overwinter my geraniums and petunias. Everything else is hardy enough for winter; otherwise, it’s really too much effort for me. Native plants are hardy anyway.

@haydee
He won’t do anything for me. He doesn’t like me.

Our garden will not be fully planted this year because there is still a lot of structural work to do, and we prefer to complete it step by step ourselves, such as building a dry stone wall and adding more fencing to protect an area from deer browsing. A small planted privet hedge seemed to be particularly appealing to them. On the bright side, having extra time at the moment does have its advantages: the raised beds are gradually being planted, a wooden deck has been built, the hot tub will be connected to it today, and a dozen different berry bushes for insects and birds have found their place. A small greenhouse will also be set up by the weekend.

During the move, the cast iron grates for the grill appear to have gone missing (how does that even happen?) — would have been nice to have them yesterday.

@hampshire at least you already have raised garden beds.
Unfortunately, our garden will suffer due to the pandemic. We have less time. We still have to work, the daycare is closed, and we have to take care of our parents, so the days are short. We do spend time outside with our little one and work on the garden, but everything takes much longer with a toddler than without.
The main thing is to stay busy and distracted.
We won’t be hiring a landscaping contractor; we are still expecting significant income losses this year.

Building raised garden beds yourself is affordable and straightforward – the only real challenges come from the little ones. You don’t really need a landscape designer for this, just some good tools. A quality miter saw pays off with just this one project, and an 18V cordless drill with extra batteries is also very useful, often already available at home. Untreated wood is inexpensive; don’t use wood that’s too thin. Use square posts, staple chicken wire at the bottom, add a protective layer inside between the soil and the wood (if you don’t go for thick material), and a few boxes of general-purpose screws. Whether or not you want to treat the wood is a personal choice – it definitely improves durability.

For seed starting, you can build a wooden cover with a sheet of polycarbonate (Makrolon) on top of the bed – this is also quick to assemble. A raised bed measuring 3000 x 1000 x 550 mm (L x W x H) is not more expensive than a nice large plant pot. You can manage well with about €50.

I went a bit overboard with material thickness and screws and estimate that I spent about €75 for such a bed, including materials. (For adjusting it to the terrain, I also needed a circular saw with a guide rail.)