green thumb...or not?

Yes, I know I have been missing in action again.  Dang work and life just seem to get in the way of my free time lol!

One of my new project is a garden we are putting in!!  Of course we couldn't have started this in February when it was cool and not 100+ degree weather.  Last week my husband started clearing the space in our backyard where we had plenty of room for a garden right next to our cute little Lemon tree.

Because of our dogs we wanted to do a raised garden to help detour them from eating all of our crops.  After looking around online we thought a cinder block garden was our best option.  So, off to Home Depot.

The cinder block we used were $1.14 each and we ended up needing about 70 of them.  We were going big with the garden - go big or go home!

Putting the blocks down took the most time.  Our yard is not level at all so we had lots of....put the blocks down....pull the blocks up, going on.  By the end of the day we had the blocks down and pretty happy with our work. 

We did know that we wanted to paint the blocks so they matched the fence better and didn't stick out so much.  My husband had figured how he wanted to run the water to the garden. The soil was a big question as to what to use, best way to buy it.  On Craigslist we could have it delivered, but we thought for us it would be easier to buy in bags.  Just make sure you do your math.  When you buy in bags it come in cubic feet, when you buy in bulk and have delivered it's in cubic yards.

I had one other idea as i looked at this blank canvas of a garden...wouldn't it be cool to paint something on the block besides just brown like the fence.  Hummmm....lucky for me at my office we do vinyl printing, so I had the word "grow" printed out to fit on the front of the blocks.  Then spray painted in the color Nutmeg.

 

I used about four cans of spray paint and had to stop until the following morning because it was so hot to paint.  At this point we also ran our main water line and lined the garden with cardboard to help keep the weeds out and hold in moisture. The soil we bought came in bags of 3 cubic yards, we bought 10 of them and it filled our garden half way.  This weekend we'll be back at Home Depot to pick up the last 10 bags that we needed.  Talk about a workout during all of this!

The next morning after putting down the last coat of paint I peeled off the "grow" sticker and oh yea I am in love!!  Turned out sooooooooooo awesome!! Look forward to finishing the soil, running the water and then figuring what to plant first!  There will also still be some decor work done.  Along the back of the block I am going to put down flat stones, some of the side holes of the cinder blocks I will fill with soil and add flowers.  Also want to add some solar lights and stepping stones into the garden.  All in all, I am loving it!  Thank you to my wonderful husband for all of the hard work! With out him....I'd just be at Sprouts buying my veggies lol.

Watch for updates to see if we can actually grow anything!