Step 1 - It's Not Too Late to Turn Back (Planning)

Putting a raised bed garden together should be pretty simple and straightforward, right? I mean, you just build a few boxes, throw some dirt in, plant your stuff, and watch it grow. HA! Things are never that simple. When planning the layout, composition, and general purpose of your garden with the input of other people, it can be helpful to be speaking the same language - and even if you use the same words, it doesn't always mean you're speaking the same language.

I swear there were times throughout the planning process that my husband and I were talking about the exact same things but had no clue what the other was saying. Ever feel like you're stuck in the middle of Abbott and Costello's 'Who's on First' skit? Yeah, that was us.

I blame it on him being a computer geek. He likes abstract thinking and loves to design everything on the computer. I'm completely old school and figure it's easier to spend 15 minutes drawing the design on a piece of paper than to spend 3 hours trying to get the dimensions right on a computer program I don't understand. That, and computers hate me. But that's a discussion for another day.

So the shape of the garden was not hard to figure out. Since we've had such a long history of trial-and-error (they're learning experiences, ok?), we pretty much knew what we wanted this time around. We're going to have three 4'x12' boxes in the center with a border of 2' wide boxes surrounding them. Outside of that border, we're going to have a fence (two fences actually, but I'll get into that later) which we're planning on dressing up with flowers, etc.

The details will always get you though. How deep do you want the boxes? Where exactly do you want the whole thing positioned? What are you going to use to fill in the walkways? What color are you going to stain the wood?? These and many other pressing questions (maybe just for me) need to be worked out, and just when you think you've nailed something down, someone thinks of another detail, and it all needs to be reworked.

We really thought it would be simple and the majority of the thinking would be done within a couple of hours in one night. With our *vast* experience, we should have known better.