Simple Happiness: My First Raised Garden Bed

Boom! I finally got my sh-tuff together and got my raised garden bed going! And it was super easy. If I can do it, you can too! You can find pre-built garden beds online through Amazon like I did, find them at your local hardware store, or build your own if you are up for it. I chose the first option, which was the quickest and easiest for me, but maybe the not most affordable for everyone. Do whatever works for you. Regardless, thanks to my roomie for building it (to my surprise) – he probably got bored of watching it sit in the box in the living room! Here’s my super easy steps below to get this thing going, and the rest is just waiting and patience for these beauties to do what they do best… GROW.

Step 1: Build or buy your raised garden bed. The grand total for my pre-made raised garden bed was $131.39 on Amazon (including the tax). I like the convenience of being able to care for my plants while standing. I didn’t think much about this detail until after I got it and it’s a plus for me. The other plus is that with this standing bed I can easily move it around. For example if a rainstorm comes through or the temperatures get super hot, I can just plop it down somewhere in my patio where my plants won’t get drenched or overheated. I also have a lot of control over the soil and potentially can limit all the insects that can get to them if they were closer to the floor, which can help minimize pests.

Step 2: Buy the appropriate soil. This is super important. No need to go cheap here- just straight up go organic and look for the bag that says raised garden bed. That simple. Okay, well maybe I am over simplifying. There is information out there about soil and it’s PH etc, but I am not that hardcore to be measuring the PH or anything so I went going for easiest route with the best soil I could get. This is the example of the one I purchased at my local hardware store, Kellog Garden Organics. It was more affordable than I thought soil would be!

Step 3: Search for your plants/flowers. Okay, I will admit that I did this step haphazardly and essentially did no research to figure out what to plant for the current weather. Luckily for me, California is a pretty sunny place with plenty of heat here in LA in May so I lucked out with most of the plants I purchased. Although my cucumber, mint, basil, cilantro, serrano pepper, cherry tomato, and fresno pepper plants all tend to be pretty tolerant of the sun/heat, they require different watering. The one that I need to keep a closer eye on is my lettuce because too much heat = no bueno for lettuce. And similarly to my approach with the soil, I tried to find all organic plants- afterall I am planning to consume them and I think it is very much worth it. You can find organic plants at Whole Foods or Home Depot. I really like the brand Bonnie’s Plants because they are organic and are sold with much less plastic waste then other brands. Their website also can be helpful in terms of find out what your particular plant needs.

Gardening is a great way to get grounded, literally and figuratively. It helps connect us back to the earth, especially those of us who are immersed in highly populated cities with traffic, the rush of life and what feels like not enough time in a day. There is something special about waking up in the morning and running out to see my plants and scoping out which ones might be struggling or thriving and then caring for them. I hope you find the time and resources to start somewhere. For me, I started by getting a free lettuce sprout from my local farmer’s market and finally came around to investing in my garden and I hope this inspires you to start somewhere too. If you start somewhere, or maybe you’ve already got an awesome garden going, tag me on instagram @waveofconsciousness for me to see and re-post! Thanks for taking the time to read this post!

Sending you peace, groundedness and love,

Joanna