Our Garden Beds And Flower Beds

Growing up, I absolutely hated working outside in the garden. I HATED it. It was hot. It was messy. It was a hard work and bad on the back. The funny thing is now, I love it. I love feeling the dirt between my fingers. I love the smell of the fresh soil. I love the satisfaction I get from the hard work it takes. Now I enjoy growing veggies and flowers and reaping the rewards of my work. 

We try to garden as organically as we can. I use only organic fertilizers and use organic pest control methods. We also compost kitchen and yard waste. For Christmas one year, DH gave me a compost bin that we can turn to aid in the composting process. We have it set up at our garden bed area. 

The compost bin is the black barrel looking thing on the left. The square garden bed was once DD's sand box. We replaced the timbers making it higher and added more dirt to it. Right now I am using it as a bed for Irises. 

We have three garden beds. The square one in the picture above and two rectangular ones. After adding compost, leaves, and chicken liter to them for years, we have a rich organic soil which grows things nicely. In the spring, I plant salad greens, onion, radishes, and sugar peas. In the summer, I plant tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, and a variety of peppers. 

Our two rectangular garden beds with what remains of our tomato and pepper plants.

I love growing flowers. There is just something about flowers that make me smile. We have several flower beds. I have already told you about the one in front of the chicken house and the square garden bed I am growing Irises in. In addition to those, we have two more on the back side of our house. 

After we built our back deck, DH wanted to put in a brick patio to set a fire pit on. When the patio was finished, we surrounded it with a flower bed and put in steeping stones to reach the patio. It is on the South side of the house and receives a lot of sun, but I have been able to grow beautiful flowers by planting ones that can take the heat and the sun. 

Our fire pit area flower bed.

Another view

It looks messy right now with the last flowers of summer blooming, leaves everywhere, and weeds to be pulled but it is still pretty.

The last flower bed was built as Christmas present for me by DH. It is located in the Southeast corner of our house. It makes a great companion to our patio flower bed. The combination of the two flower beds makes for a pretty spot to dine al fresco in the spring and summer. 

The corner flower bed.

A great combination.

Having garden beds and flower beds require water. Even though I try to plant flowers that can take dry periods, they still need an occasional drink. So to provide water for my garden beds, flower beds, and flower pots; we have a rain barrel system set  up beside our garden shed. It provides us with water for most of the growing season and rarely is empty.

Our clothes line and rain barrel area. When this picture was taken, DH was replacing the gutters. We have a downspout that collects water from the roof. We have buckets and another barrel to store some of the water in too.

When spring arrives, the flowers start to bloom, and seeds began to sprout; I will share the simple beauty that can be found in our garden and flower beds. I enjoy the simple pleasure of making things grow!