Creative...gardening? Yes!

Well, I have been busy with my garden this spring/summer.  My sons and husband have helped me to make some raised beds this year and I LOVE  them!

Here are my beauties all in a nice neat line.  My first bed has a trellis down the middle.  We planted peas in the middle, then on the left side we planted two rows of carrots and on the right, a row of radishes and butter lettuce.  I pulled all the peas and butter lettuce this morning.  They were done.  I want to try some winter crops and see how they do.  I'm thinking kale, chard, maybe some more radishes.  I will have to play with it a bit.  

This is my potato bed.  I'm going to have so many potatoes!  Yum!  We planted Yukon golds.  Can't wait to dig them up.

And here are some of my beautiful tomatoes!  I can't wait until they turn red.  I have had no problems with disfigured tomatoes this year and no blossom end rot.  They are just lovely.
I have one more bed of strawberries.  The runners are taking over, so that is my next project.  How to move them somewhere else (Oh boys!  Mama needs another bed....).  I have 6 plants that are ever bearing, so I can go out and have a strawberry every now and then through the season.  The other 12-18 plants are June bearing, so next year I will get large harvests all within a window of time, for putting away.
The weeding has been almost non-exsistant with this type of gardening.  We put newspaper on the bottom of two of the beds and nothing on the others, I can't really tell the difference.  We filled the beds with peat moss, composted manure, and just some dirt (high clay concentration) from my dad's farm.  The soil is absolutely beautiful now!
I love my raised beds... have I told you that already?  :)  They are amazing and a great way to garden if you are short on space or don't have the power tools to use.  Give it a try!  Nothing beats fresh!