The Sungrown Garden

The Sungrown Garden, 8 Raised Beds, built and ready to be planted next year. It took us all summer but we did it! Check out the transformation to growing more food! Lots of summer favorite recipes below!

Newly built cedar raised bed vegetable gardens.

Building Our Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

Last summer, we built our raised bed vegetable garden, and yes it took the whole summer! Now that we have a bigger yard, I want to grow more food. We took down an old willow tree that was damaged in a storm, and were left with a sunny spot.

With a tiny bit of help from me and the kids, my husband built 8 raised garden beds, lined by a row of Wichita Blue Juniper Trees for a barrier from the street.

Willow tree where our vegetable garden will go.

Before: The Old Willow Tree

The willow tree, loved for its charm, had to be taken down. It lost a major branch in a storm the previous summer and looked pretty terrible.

Taking down a large tree always feels so shockingly different. We lost some privacy, but were left with a perfect garden spot.

Old willow tree where our new garden will be built.

The storm damaged tree to be cut down for the garden.

Cutting down the tree for our new garden site.

During: The Building Process

Most of the work in building the garden was leveling the ground where the tree was. By shovel, we removed and moved around a lot of dirt! It was a fun giant "sand box" for the kids for a few summer months!

Child helping to dig the side for our raised bed garden.

Process of building 8 raised vegetable garden beds.

Kids playing in a raised bed garden box.

A Mini Homestead

While we were building the garden, we still managed to squeeze some garden fresh produce from our yard. When we moved, our new yard already had 2 full sized mulberry trees and a large raspberry patch.

Window box planters full of growing spinach.

I've stocked the freezer with Mulberry Freezer Jam and berries for smoothies. We also grew spinach in our window boxes and a few green bean plants in pots. This Green Bean Salad with Tomato and Feta is a summer favorite!

Harvested bowl of basil, raspberries, and green beans.

This Easy Mulberry Freezer Jam can be made with any summer berries! We freeze it in small jars and eat it all year.

Making mulberry freezer jam from our backyard trees.

We planted two apple trees, a plum tree, and a juneberry (service berry).

Lots of picked strawberries and raspberries.

After: The Sungrown Garden

It was a long summer project and really hard work, but it was so worth it! This summer, 2019, we are ready to start planting our first garden in our new cedar raised beds!