It was really important to me to spend the first week getting as many plants in to the ground as I could because this would give me as much grow time as possible. If you look at the pictures right after planting you’ll see why: if I had waited until the very end the plants wouldn’t be filled in and it would look like a pinterest fail. A few months ago while visiting my parents Mike and I grabbed about 16 of my dad’s old scaffolding planks. He’s a retired stucco contractor but still has a yard full of supplies. They’ve been sitting on the side of the house just waiting for me to put them to use.

Use a square and our circular saw I cut the planks into 5.5′ lengths for the sides and 3.5′ lengths for the ends of the raised garden planters.

Just cutting all the pieces was a lot of work, I piled them all in the “garden” area and made a trip to Lowe’s for some wood screws to get them all together. I also bought some soil and plants.

Then I screwed them together with 4, 3″ #2 wood exterior screws on every end.

I spaced them evenly, stapled landscaping fabric to the insides and called it a day. We have 10 chickens we keep in our rear yard and they do a good job of improving the soil in that area. I spent the next day shoveling some of that dirt and then wheel barrow it to the “garden” area. It took three wheel barrow fulls of dirt for each planter. That’s 12 trips. Plus, I wanted to amend the soil with vegetable soil, peat moss and some vermiculite. I bought that at Lowe’s and put a bag of each of those into the soil too. If you’re curious where I get my gardening info, I’ve read this book about twenty times in the past several years.

Days three and four were spent buying and planting plants. The first trip to Lowe’s I bought 24 plants and when I got them in the ground it looked like nothing had been done. In fact, it was almost funny.

What I was hoping it would look like:

What it actually looked like:

This is what 24 plants looks like in 4 3.5×5.5′ planters.

#pinterestfail

So, I went to Home Depot and bought 24 more plants. Some pvc and fittings to get water to all these plants. Then I went to Armstrong Garden Center and bought about 30 more plants and a bay leaf tree. and this is were I finished the week:

See my Bay Leaf tree over in the back left corner? It smells amazing and now I’ll never have to worry about running out of Bay Leaf in my spice cabinet again…my neighbors, friends and family will also never have to worry.

Guys. This is what 60+ something plants looks like. I hope in the next few weeks they spread out because I am done with planting anything in the beds (I did spread some carrot seeds and spinach seeds though).

Here’s what I planted in the existing concrete cut out: aloe, artichoke, thornless boysenberry, thornless blackberries, and strawberries. Don’t worry, I have a plan to disguise the plumbing.

So, here’s where I ended the week: all the plants are in. Rough plumbing is in…but I’m still watering by hand. I also found a couple of cute chairs and pillows for the area. And I’m working on an Ikea hack for my potting bench.

Plan for next week: finish all the drip irrigation; find a pot and plant my Bay Leaf tree; build the storage benches/seating area; mulch around the cut out plants; start working on the pool surround fence.

If you’d like to read more about this One Room Challenge, here’s links to the last five weeks for you to check out!
Week 1 – focuses on plans and detailed drawings of the space as well as before pictures.

Week 3 – Storage Bench tutorial and garden build/life update

Week 4 – Diy build of the equipment surround

Week 5 – DIY GIANT Barn Door, Ikea hacks and diy solar pendant lights on a pulley

Week 6 – The Reveal

Crossing my fingers that I get where I need to be next week, thanks for stopping by and cheering me on! This is definitely going to take some fine detailing to make it look a lot more inviting than what I have so far! If you have time check out some of the other One Room Challenge guest participants, along with the 20 Featured Designers.

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23 Comments

  1. Looking good Joannie! Love watching how your remodels, always flows together. Never disappoints, always pleasing to the eyes, stunning and artistically creative.

  2. The plan of planting plants early is a good one. Something that I don’t many would have thought of. You got quite a bit done- be proud. Looking forward to seeing you potting bench hack!

  3. I know what you mean about how many plants it takes to fill a large space. I always find myself going back to nurseries and purchasing more! Look forward to seeing how you’re going to hide the plumbing. Love the gorgeous inspiration photo, btw! Good luck next week!

  4. Question for you, is there a reason you have incorporated flowers- marigolds in the garden. Is this a pest issue?

I promise to reply if you do!