Raising Beds

I took a tomato growing class at a local nursery a few weeks ago. My swc tomatoes did okay last year. The grape/roma tomatoes produced decently and we had a few slicing tomatoes.  Oh how I long for more. I want to be overrun with tomatoes like we were the first year we planted tomato plants. Of course we had a weird cool summer with lots of rain.  The tomatoes were plentiful and delicious and they tricked me into thinking that growing tomatoes in TX is so easy.  How wrong I was.

I found out at the class that the summer so long ago was the perfect summer for tomatoes. Tomato plants stop setting fruit when the average high temp is over 85 and when the average night time temp is over 75. The plants will keep putting out flowers but will stop producing fruit.  Just what I've dealt with the last 3 years. 

I decided to try two different suggestions from the class. Raised bed and starting my tomatoes early.  As in the end of February/ beginning of March early. Tomato plants aren't available until next month so I got a head start on my beds.

I don't think DH thought I would actually go through with this plan, but I did all on my own. I did ask him a couple of questions before starting and had him help me when the first couple of screws weren't digging into the second board. Once I figured out I needed to use two C clamps to hold the boards in place, I was off and drilling. J came out and helped pre-drill some holes for the screws. It took a bit of work but it really wasn't too hard.
















Sorry for the blown out pictures. I couldn't do much about the mid afternoon sun. You can see that when I made the box I had to come up with a way to use both C clamps and hold the boards up.  After piling up extra boards and the milk crate, I was still a bit off level. Luckily the bit of rope in the crate was just the lift I needed.

Now I need to deal with the bed and setting the boxes in place.  I don't know if you can see everything in the bed.  The tall sticky plant to the left is one of my Turk's cap.  I love, love, love this plant.  It attracts hummingbirds and bumblebees all summer long.  However, it also grows humongous and overruns other plants.  The spindly greens in front of the first box and in the middle of the right side are the onions I planted.  In back by the flag is garlic. The large green/brown mound is oregano growing over rocks. The tiny green mound between the onions and the stepping stones is the thyme that died last summer but grew back this winter.

I was talking to A about how I was going to maneuver the new boxes around all of this stuff.  I was contemplating digging up the Turk's cap, but the idea of it made me so sad.  I told A that maybe we needed to dig up the onions while they are in the green onion stage instead letting them get to the big onion stage.  She, the wise one, told me to dig up the onions, put the boxes where I want them and then re-plant the onions. Why didn't I think of that? I can keep my Turk's cap and my onions and put in strawberries and tomatoes too!