There is More Than Just Art in My Everyday Life

Although I am a full-time artist I do occasionally tackle projects that are non-art related. This past weekend I built a raised vegetable garden. Or, as my son Matt called it, "a community garden". 

I have raised some vegetables in the past but mostly just tomatoes, basil and a few other fresh herbs. On my recent trip to Washington D.C. I was lucky enough to attend a film festival at American University about farming, a farm to table restaurant and organic vegetable gardening. By the time I walked out of the theatre I knew I had to have a vegetable garden again! (Thanks Steph for the inspiration!)

I spent a lot of time on the internet researching raised vegetable gardens and chose this photo for my inspiration.

Fortunately my amazing handyman from Ventura agreed to come to Pasadena to build the boxes. Because I was going to place the beds on the concrete driveway in our backyard, the boxes had to be 24" tall (for root growth) and needed about 3" of rock in the bottom of the beds (for drainage). I also ordered rock and super organic soil (especially created for vegetable gardens) from Whittier Fertilizer which was delivered Saturday afternoon.

We started at Home Depot at 7:30am and somehow managed to purchase the lumber, load it on Rudy's van and start assembly by 9:00am. Rudy made the beautiful wooden beds and I made the tomato cages. My inspiration for the tomato cages came from here. I made my cages a bit smaller. They are 5' tall and the bottom measurement of each side is 14". The wooden side slats measure 12", 10" and 8". They weren't hard to make but they just took a long time and I have some painful blisters on my hands as proof that I built them! Cost per tomato cage was $4.00 or $9.00 with the finial.

​Once the beds were assembled I shoveled the rock into a wheelbarrow and filled the bottom of each bed. Then I lined the bottom with landscaping cloth and stapled it to prevent soil from leaking out of the bottom of the bed when watered. See photo above. Finally, I added the soil and the beds were ready for planting.

Check back later in the week for more progress and photos of my vegetable beds with tons of growing vegetables!