Hedgie's Veggies

The latest backyard project for us has been a raised vegetable garden made out of cinder block. Luckily Matt got a lot of help from Jayna's Uncle Tim who also lives in Maricopa. Tim built a similar raised garden in his backyard last year and was nice enough to teach Matt how to build one in our backyard. Not only did he help in designing it but he sacrificed most of his Saturday mornings and several of his Saturday afternoons for about two months to help mix mortar/concrete, lay bricks, and to fill the garden with soil when the wall was done. Needless to say we owe him a huge thanks. Not only is he one of the most selfless people we know but he also happens to be the strongest person we know which came in extremely handy. It took him about half as long to mix twice as much concrete/mortar as Matt could mix at a time, (picture him mixing up melted butter with a hot knife and picture Matt struggling to mix frozen butter with a cold spoon and you get the general idea) so to say that without his help the project would have taken a lot longer would be an understatement. Matt's brother in law Andy was also a big help. He supplied the vice and a lot of the muscle to bend all the rebar, let Matt borrow his trailer to haul dirt and manure in, and even helped shovel a lot of the dirt and manure into and then out of the trailer. So a big thanks to Andy as well (who coincidentally is also one of the most selfless people we know.)

Here's a few pics from the construction:

The trench for the footing...


After the footing was poured...


First row of bricks complete...


Second row done...


Third row done, garden filled and planted.


We're trying to grow a bunch of different fruits and vegetables including jalapenos, several different types of bell peppers, Anaheim peppers, banana peppers, several different types of tomatoes, cilantro, green onions, garlic, strawberries, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupe, and carrots.

The wall is not quite done yet - Matt still needs to stucco and paint it and find some sort of bricks or blocks to line the top with, but we wanted to get the plants in before it got too hot so the finishing touches on the wall will be the next step. This is a good time to mention that Uncle Tim is an engineer and doesn't do anything halfway, so the wall was built to last for a long long time and we feel sorry for the next person who owns the house who doesn't like it and tries to get rid of it.