Skipping steps may have proven to be a bad idea....

Should have done this long ago, but just got around to it today.  Took a soil sample down to the Charleston County Clemson Extension to find out if the soil condition in the beds is as good as it can be for a successful garden.  You know what every gardening book you read tells you to do as a first step after you pick out your sunny spot, right?  Test the soil.
Well, somehow I figured we could probably get away with skipping that step.  After all, we had mixed some sandy soil with a truckload of "fines" that we had delivered from a friend's grind site and I knew we had a ton of very rich organic material (that even smelled organic)  ~ so I figured if it looked good,  and smelled good, it must be good.

(If you live in the Charleston area, the extension is on King St downtown.  Each sample tested costs $6.00.  You get the results by email within a couple of weeks.)

Well, I've come to discover that some of the plants are having issues.  This was not suppose to happen.  The basil has dark spots on it, the cilantro is turning orange and the lettuce has yellow leaves.

I'm hoping the soils test will reveal a simple solution.  Maybe it is something as simple as too much water since we've had a lot of rain - but whatever it turns out to be, it motivated me to get the soil tested. I'll be posting an update once I've been enlightened as to what is going on here.

Little helpers..

Got a little gardening help planting the okra seeds.  We may find bunches of them sprouting in interesting places.  This little helper got ahold of a handful of seeds that are currently not accounted for.

Planting okra seeds.  He insisted on wearing my gloves.  : )

Progress

Raised beds are finished and planting has begun.  So exciting!  I go out every morning to see if I can find anything new sprouting up.  It is such a miracle!

Each bed has its own watering system and we also have a spicket in the pathway to allow for hand watering if needed. Cool, eh?  Makes it so easy!  

We've got everything labeled with little white posts.  More important than you would think.  First of all, being a first go at this, not everything that sprouts out of the ground is recognizable - at least to me.  Second, it can help keep you from planting seeds on top of seeds ~ that is, if you place the posts when you plant.  Currently we have bell peppers planted on top of the potatoes.  Guess we will see which sprout first and then move them.   And hopefully potato sprouts look very different from bell pepper sprouts!

Well ~ let's get started. Raised bed vegetable garden.

Laying it out and making adjustments along the way.

Getting a some help from a little cowboy.

Measuring for the center walkway

Almost done building all the walls.

We've had a few people ask us about how we built our raised beds.  We would be a stretch since I didn't actually do any of the work.  My input in this was limited to sharing my wish list.  1- to have it raised to about knee height so there wouldn't be so much bending over.  2 - to have the ability to reach to the center of whatever space we created.  Ultimately this meant creating a path through the middle of the raised bed.  I love the result, but it meant a lot more work for my husband who actually built it.  

Our beds are in the front/side yard of our house.  Ideally I wanted them around back, but it turns out this was the sunny spot and as a bonus, it is right outside our kitchen window.  It is also a place where we have good drainage.  Honestly, the vegetables will get much better attention where they are since we walk by them when we come into the house and I see them every time I am in front of our kitchen sink.  

Finally filled and ready for planting