Spring Fever!!!

It's dreary, cold, and yucky outside today... it even snowed a bit this morning. Ugh!!! I am SO over it!

So to combat my winter blues I've picked up the book my parents gave me for my birthday, Square Foot Gardening. I'm about 1/2 way through it, and I am so excited for spring! I can hardly stand it!

So as I'm reading it I've been discussing it with Hubs, because lets face it, I'm not setting up a garden for the first time by myself. In case you didn't know, there's this whole huge theory surrounding SFG (that's what the kids are callin' it on the gardening forum, I checked). Basically you plant things in squares rather than rows inside of raised beds. Now these beds can be as simple as tilling up your entire space and then marking the squares with wooden plank pathways (so they actually aren't raised at all), or they can get much more elaborate from there. Obviously there are just about a bazillion plans out there for creating raised beds, all using different methods and materials. For us? We need one that is relatively simple to create, and will never need to be created again. So using wood at all is just not going to happen, because it will eventually rot and then need to be replaced.

That leaves us with cement of some sort, or plastics of some sort. Hubs' first idea was to create the beds using large PVC pipes. And of course I inwardly groaned and listened to his reasoning of why that was such a marvelous idea. I just envisioned ugly white pipe in my garden, pipe that would be uncomfortable to sit on or kneel on... and after I googled it and found lots of info about PVC (how it becomes brittle over time in the sun and eventually cracks and how it may or may not leach chemicals into the soil), I came back to Hubs and calmly and rationally explained what I had found. Sometimes... it's very very hard to be calm and rational... especially when it comes to something that I view as mine. Like my garden.

So then we discussed cement. Now cement obviously will last for practically forever, but we instantly hit a roadblock. I suggested cinder blocks, because they're cheap and easy to construct with. He did not like that idea... at all. He thinks they're ugly. And although I don't think they're a picture showpiece, I also don't really expect my garden to be seen by everyone. But lets face it, I'm gonna be proud of myself if I ever get this garden off the ground and I'm gonna want to show it to people, and then Hubs will be mortified that the beds are made out of cinder blocks. Yes, that is me rolling my eyes.

Then I mentioned these raised bed kits that I found online yesterday while surfing around learning everything I could about the subject. They're made out of recycled plastic (Orcaboard), they're non-toxic, and they have a 50 year warranty. Downside? It'll be about $1500. But considering that it's a one time expense, and an improvement to our property and hopefully house value, it's not too terrible. So today my job is to call around and find out of Home Depot or Lowes carries this sort of thing or if we really do need to order it online.

I'm so excited! Just take a look! Orcaboard Raised Bed Kit. So here's the question to all you seasoned gardeners out there, do you think it's worth it??? We have the money to do it, otherwise we wouldn't consider it, but obviously we don't want to waste our money either. Anyone else own anything made out of Orcaboard? Apparently they also make outdoor furniture and other products.

I'd love to hear from you!