It’s hard to believe that I’ve worked at Altum’s for 18 years and still feel a little intimidated by vegetable gardening. I’ve decided to take a journey this year and build a raised garden bed with Altum’s help. I’ll be following the directions we hand out every day and using the products we recommend. With a little hard work, I hope to feed my family of four with our backyard bounty.

Veggie gardening is work, no denying that. But I invite you to grow along with me. We can sympathize and support through failures, compare notes and celebrate our successes together.

Being new to vegetable gardening, I am starting small so I can have the best chance for success.  I will be making a 4 ft x 4 ft raised bed out of 2 inch x 12 inch lumber so I will have a good 10 inches of soil.

Altum’s recommends using a mixture of:  1/3 compost (soil amendment, mushroom compost, cow manure, organic garden soil) any combination, 1/3 vermicculite, 1/3 peat moss.

Here’s your shopping list for 4ft x 4ft x 10in garden:
4 4ft lengths 2×12 wood (Did you know you can ask to have lumber cut for you?  I purchased a 2″x12″x12′ board and had it cut into 4 ft lengths; easier to transport)
wood screws
weed mat
chicken wire (optional) to help prevent critters from digging up from underneath your garden
1 2.2 bales peat moss
5 cuft compost
1 4cuft vermiculite

The nice thing about this formula, just multiply by the number of 4×4 sections you are making to know how much soil you will need.

Next post will be assembling the garden.  Go shopping and get all your supplies.  (Altum’s have the soil mix and weed mat you need, you’ll have to go to your local hardware store for the lumber) Hope you join me in this adventure! I need all the support I can get.