Getting a start on the vegetable garden

As I have already indicated in some of my last posts, this year I am diving into vegetable gardening in my backyard! I have planned on making four raised beds to house a variety of tomatoes, zucchinis and a number of other yummy things. This past Easter weekend the man and I got started on building those raised beds. Two of the four are done, we only bought enough lumber for two to begin with. I think they look great, now all I need to do is dig out the lawn, set the beds in, fill them with soil and get growing!

The beds are made of cedar (rot resistant and not treated with nasty chemicals) and are each 4' by 4' square. I plan on surrounding the beds with mulch and hopefully making a neat stone or brick boarder against the surrounding lawn. Once the other two beds are made I can give you a better idea of how much the beds cost to make - not the cheapest because of our choice of wood, but not too outrageous and since this is the first year things are going to be more costly, we are starting from scratch after all. The biggest challenge (as I see it) will be finding the right blend of soil to fill the beds. I know it's my first year and I can't expect 100% success, but I hope to get things off to a decent start with the right mix of soil, so a little research is needed.

What about those seeds I started? Well as you can see in the photos above, some of these plants cannot wait to get outside! The zucchinis* are mammoth and need to get outside sooner rather than later, they look like they are getting flower buds (too soon!). Fingers crossed that the weather works in my favor, I want to get these plants out of my house and into the yard fast!

*Those zucchini photos were actually taken over a week ago, but I'm only now getting to post them...needless to say, the plants are now even larger than pictured!