Vegetable Garden Completed

The first time that I saw our house, I was really excited about the fact that there was a separate vegetable garden. At the same time, I knew that it would take a TON of work to get it into plant-able condition.

I don't actually have a before picture which shows the complete disaster that the garden was before we started working on it. The previous owners of our house had installed raised beds along the outside border of the garden, but they were only 12 inches wide. The fenced in area is 15 x 15 and less than a quarter of the space was used for planting beds. They had planted mint and blackberries directly into the planting beds- both of which are really invasive. If you want either in your garden, most experts recommend that you plant them in pots, not directly in the garden.

Last year, we attempted to work with what was already there since by the time we had a chance to get started on the garden it was already a little late in the spring. However, this year, I was determined to completely overhaul the garden.

We started by pulling out all of the beds that the previous owner had installed. Then we leveled out the ground and covered everything with landscape fabric. Next we installed three 4 x 4 cedar raised beds that I purchased from Home Depot for $29 each on sale. I filled the beds with a mix of garden soil, compost and peet moss.

Then I purchased 6 resin whiskey barrels to place around the garden with Tarragon, Oregano, Chives, Thyme, Sage and Mint. I filled these with the same mix of soil, compost and peet moss.

Next, we addressed the fence, which was in particularly rough shape. Just like everything else at our house, the previous owners had not done the necessary basic maintenance to keep the fence in peak shape. We decided that since we had stained the deck railings white, it might be nice to have the vegetable garden fence coordinate by staining it a solid white. First we needed to clean off years of dirt and mildew. We used Olympic Deck Cleaner that we purchased at Lowe's. It was super easy. All we did was spray it on and rinse it off with the hose. We used Behr Premium Solid Exterior Stain in Ultra Pure White on the fence since we still had some left over from the deck project.

We're really happy with how crisp the fence looks and how well it coordinates with the back deck. The back yard is really starting to look almost finished. 

After we finished with staining the fence, we filled the garden with 1 1/2 yards of pea gravel which we ordered from a local stone yard, Cason Building Supply. It ran us $180 including delivery charges, but it really completes the look of the garden. 

It's so nice to have another item checked off of the To  Do List.!! Luckily, the weather in South Carolina is so mild that we are able to grow veggie and herbs for most of the year. I've just planted seeds of mesclun lettuce, spinach, arugula and beets. 

I still have lots of room in my beds for winter veggies, so I'd love to hear your ideas for winter crops.  

We've been busy!

I know... I know... It's been a while since my last post (2 1/2 months!!!) but I have an excuse. We have been incredibly busy. So busy in fact that its too much to fit into one post.

I will begin at the beginning...

This is what our back deck looked like when we bought our house. Actually, when we bought the house it was even worse. The pergola was covered in a REALLY ugly vine and there was lattice up the front of the deck completely obscuring the view so the vine had something to grow on. It was gross. I think there was something living in the vine. I hated to walk out the back door.

Even more upsetting though was the overall state of the deck. According to our neighbors, the people that we purchased the house from did no maintenance anywhere on the house for the four years that they owned it...and that definitely included the deck. It hadn't been cleaned and it definitely had not been sealed or stained. The pergola was in such bad shape that the cross beams were no longer sitting square on the ledger board. We lived with it for a year and basically had resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to have to rip the entire thing off and start over. Afterall, we were beginning to get tired of constantly removing splinters from our daughter's feet (She refuses to wear shoes out there). Why did we wait so long if it was so bad? Because replacing the deck was not in the budget when there was so much else that really needed to be done. So, it got placed on the back burner.

And then we went to Home Depot one day to get spray paint for another project. Mike and I walked past a display for Deck ReStore, a product which swears that it will seal up any cracks in the old wood on your deck and make your old deck like new. We thought it was too good to be true, but asked the Paint Guy in H.D. anyway. He was amazing and basically walked us through all the steps of what we needed to do to rehab our deck. He even gave us hints on how to apply the ReStore in a slightly different way than what the directions said. Armed with the info we got from the Paint Guy, we decided to give it a shot.

First and foremost, the pergola needed to go. We removed it and cut the support posts down to the ground. Then we replaced the hand rails around the entire deck. They were in really bad condition and one of them had cut outs for the pergola support posts so that one definitely would have had to go.

We also added a few new 2 x 4s to beef up the main posts of the railings so that everything was completely safe.

Then,  we scrubbed the deck clean. Our H.D. Rock Star recommended that we use the Behr Premium Plus 2 in 1 Wood Prep. It took us 2 days and 2 containers of the Wood Prep to get the deck clean, but the difference was amazing. It looked like a completely new deck.

Next, we were on to staining. We decided to stain the railings of the deck white and the floor of the deck and the tops of the hand rails chocolate brown. We used Behr Premium Plus Solid Stain in Ultra Pure White for the hand rails and the lattice on the bottom of the deck. It took two coats to get nice even coverage.

 The next weekend, we moved on to staining the floor of the deck. Now, the package instructions for the ReStore product had mentioned that we shouldn't apply it when the temperature is over 90 degrees. Unfortunately, this is South Carolina so that would have meant staining it in the dark or waiting until October. Neither of those seemed like an option to us so we took a shot. We started to apply one coat with the roller (as the package instructs) and then planned to wait three hours (again- as instructed) to apply the second coat.

In hind sight, we probably should have set our alarm for the crack of dawn (which we did do when putting on the second coat) and maybe chosen a day that was not 100 degrees. It went on okay but it wasn't as smooth of a finish as what we were hoping for so we went to the pool and hoped it would look better once dry. Luckily for us about 5 hours of 100 degree heat later- the skies opened up and we had a MAJOR rain storm. I think that it helped to smooth out some of the rougher spots.

We had to wait until the next weekend to complete the second coat of the ReStore because it rained nearly every night that week. (I wasn't crazy enough to attempt to do this myself with a 4 year old trying to "help". Before we did the second coat, I went back to my local Home Depot (a/k/a Second Home) and picked up two 3 inch brushes. The paint guy had told us that the first coat is basically like a primer and that the second coat is what is really important. He recommended using the brushes but cautioned us to make sure that we applied a very thick coat.

Thank goodness we listened to him! The deck looks amazing! The bottom boards are completely sealed. We definitely are not going to get any more splinters! It looks like Trex (which is the composite decking stuff) except for 3 packages of the Deck ReStore we spent $117 instead of like $500 to replace the deck with Trex.

I still have to take better after pictures but we need to finish the touch ups and stain the top rails. ReStore carries its own line of solid stains which are available through their website in colors to match the product that goes on the deck.




Just as a disclaimer- I have not received anything from Home Depot, Behr or the people who make Deck ReStore. I did, however, get a free paint stirrer from Ron, the AMAZING paint guy at the Home Depot in Greenville, SC- but I kinda think he was just being nice. (c: