My Potager …

Hopefully, you got here after seeing my previous post It’s SPRING! Rose Garden in the making. After completing the rose garden I felt that there was something missing, I needed a French Kitchen Garden – nothing to over the top, just enough space to grow Thyme, Garlic, Green Onions, Shallots, Oregano, Basil and a few others that I use on daily basis. Again, I starting research for raised garden beds but they were pricey and the wood did not seem worth the price. After gathering ideas for the design and material I headed out to Home Depot once again. I ended up purchasing 4 – 2 in. x 6 in. x 10 ft. #2 and Better Kiln-Dried Heat Treated Spruce-Pine-Fir Lumber to make 2 beds 7’x3′, I choose spruce pine instead of cedar because of the price, I knew that I had to treat it because of insects and weathering, I also wanted to add color without using stains. So anyways – I had HD to cut each 10ft long boards into 7ft and 3ft but when I got home I ended up cutting the 3ft down to 2ft and the 7ft down to 6ft, that way each raised bed would be 6×2.

Then it was time to treat the wood and protect it, so I figure I would treat the boards with Liquid copper fungicide, knowing that it would stain the boards perhaps also protect the boards like they protect plants from insects.

A few days earlier I had placed a steel wool pad in 2 cups of vinegar (which I had seen on the diy dork channel on youtube – http://diydork.com/how-to-make-homemade-wood-stain/), tested it out and it seemed to work. The bare wood would turn brown and the copper-treated wood would turn a green blotchy color which was fine for me.

Once, all the boards had the iron-vinegar stain applied I waited 24 hours for them to dry and applied 3 coats of Tung Oil letting each coat to dry overnight and they came out looking like this.

Now it was time to put them together, originally I wanted to do something fancy but ended up doing just putting them together with 1-1/4″ Spax screws.

Now it was time to get those raised beds into place, I decided to use the weed trimmer to cut down the grass where the beds were going and placed cardboard then layered with garden soil and peat moss on top.

And yes more stepping stones- yep about 30 more- just because mowing would be a hassle.

So here it is currently today…

Added some Lemon Grass on both sides behind the bench and I have also added some very small citrus, pineapple plants. On the rose beds, I added 2 Lilac Josee, it’s actually becoming a scented garden. We’ll see how everything starts to grow, I might have to make some changes later on.