As an early birthday gift for my amazing significant other, I took our COVID era sand box which hasn’t been used much lately and converted it into raised bed for a vegetable garden. The original sand box was just under 4 ft by 8 ft (and ¾ cubic yard of sand) and had started to accumulate weeds and cat droppings. As we have a newer sand box for the 3-year-old it was time we repurposed the old one into a vegetable garden.
As I wasn’t originally planning to write about it I sadly forgot to take a picture of the jungle before tearing it all out. But I did start taking some pictures after that.
The tearing out process was interesting. I’ve worked on a farm before so I’m used to plants and gardens, but this was a first time I was preparing a bed from a base of sand. As all plants in it were weeds, I was truly trying to get out every little bit of plant and root. The sand allowed the plants to come out roots and all relatively easily allowing me to see the vast root structures the weeds had already put down. I’ve always known intellectually just how big the root structures are, but seeing them come out was a visceral reminder to me.
I did decide to leave the sandy base. Underneath is concrete and the box can hold ¾ cubic yard of sand so getting that much dirt in would have required a dump truck (which is how we got the sand there). Instead we’ll just experiment with topping it off with potting soil labeled for raised beds and remind ourselves we’ll have well drained soils. The tomatoes should do well. (Hopefully)
We have some big rocks laying around so I thought I’d put some in with the idea of them being stepping points for the 3 year old. A guy can dream right? We’ll see how well they work for her.
I’m super excited to have done this. I’ve been meaning to get a vegetable garden in for a while and when my significant other requested it for their birthday I was excited to oblige. It’s so important to be growing at least a little of your own food. It’s such a fun and direct way to do one more little part combating climate change, I’m embarrassed I didn’t start it sooner. It will be a few less veggies shipped from far away and turning otherwise bare concrete into something more exciting. Hopefully we’ll get a good crop and I’ll post again later.