Outdoor Herb Garden!

The husband did something wonderful for me this week- he surprised me with my first raised-bed square-foot garden. I had visions that 2010 would be host to a full-on victory garden at our house; with my own homemade compost, herbs and veggies grown from seed, etc. But then mcNugget, the bathrooms and the heat got in the way.

When we got a slew of wonderful herbs as favors from my baby shower, I had a couple of doubles - and not enough window to put them in. So enter in the square foot garden. In under 30 minutes, he had constructed the 3'X3' bed below from scraps in our basement. There is something seriously sexy about being married to such a handy man... it just makes him so much more manly. Top that off with his ability to read my mind about the style, then make it appear for free - and without any nagging on my part... yeah, its better than an ice cream sunday to this 9 month pregnant woman.

So once it was built, the rest was up to me (since he was at work and I was desperately excited to get the project done). I actually went to the streets for the next step - and picked up the yellowed newspaper ads lying in the street from in front of my house and the neighbors (which had been bothering me for a few weeks). (Note: I cleaned up the neighborhood AND got weed-deterrent for free... self high-five!). Then I laid them out right over the grass and gave them a good soak.

Then I filled the plot with about 6" of soil, and planted my herbs. 2 basil, 1 chamomile, 1 marjoram and 1 mint.

Note the mint is actually planted in a plastic bucket since its so invasive (left column, center row... aka "Jan Brady"), it would have taken over the whole garden. This plant was a donation from my next door neighbor Kimmie.

As you can see, I still have 4 more squares to spread to, but I wanted to keep at least one of each herb handy in their pots in the house - which is all I had window-ledge space for anyhow. The whole project only cost me $10 in dirt - which if I had the energy, would have been free also using my compost. The build took Bo 30 minutes, and the rest took me an hour... and if a 9 month pregnant woman can do it in the first days of summer, anyone can! (Don't worry, I was really careful to do this in the evening when it was cooler and not lifting anything I couldn't... the dirt was 75% relocated by hand and cup, which is why it took me an hour!)

So now I just have to water and watch to make sure none of my little beauties get heatstroke or dehydrated. I'll keep you updated on their progress!