Hey, I have two 4x4 raised beds. I find it's not enough. Do you have other vegeable garden spots? I planted two green pepper plants in my raised flower bed. It actually looks nice.

Great idea about the chicken wire. Repelling the slugs is a bonus, too. I was thinking of finding some scrap copper to put around my new hostas, but maybe chicken wire might be easier to find.

Thanks for sharing your awesome idea =:)

Good job, Gil. I've also had cats in my raised beds - they seem to especially like the freshly tilled soil and it's really frustrating when they dig up the freshly planted transplants. Grrrrr.

I don't plant veggies in my flower beds because I grow my food organically and my flowers are laden with pesticides and miracle grow. ;0) I try to only grow high-priced vegetables that we like to eat. This year I have green beans, cherry tomatoes and peas. I do plan on building another one or two beds but I haven't had enough full-sun space until now. I just got a letter yesterday that my big elm tree has DED and will be removed - I'm secretly glad because it takes up a lot of space and makes a lot of *#@^ing seeds. When it's gone I will grow some more veggies in that area. I would like to grow potatoes again. They're not expensive to buy but I love digging them up.

Northspruce- Are you near Coeur d'Alene? Just wondered, with the MB CDA.

Cats can be a bother, but have you tried alyssum? I have a lot of alyssum planted under my vegetables, to keep the weeds down. The cats don't seem to bother that area :)

No not Idaho, that stands for Manitoba, Canada.

The chicken wire sorted out the cat, it has never been around again.

Northspruce - I like to grow organically too. I use fish emulsion, but I didn't think of what may have been on the flowers I purchased. Oops. Also, my raised flower bed has Pro-mix which I wasn't thrilled to put green peppers in ( 2 plants) but it was that, or nothing. If I'd known the weather would be so detrimental to my pole beans, I could have grown the green peppers in that spot =:(

Your raised beds are 2' high. Is that a comfortable height to work with? Mine are only 9" and I'm thinking of some day making them higher.

I do like the height of my bed. It's three 2x10s high so it's a little more than 2 feet. These past two rainy summers it's been really great. My mom has to bail the water out of her ground level garden with a bucket, but my raised bed drains freely. They can be a nuisance in dry years though. You would have to water pretty much every day if it was hot and didn't rain.

This current bed was filled with two composters of unfinished compost, then topped off with bagged topsoil which had no added chemicals but wasn't officially organic. I haven't added fertilizer yet since it had a base of compost. This year I bought organic seeds and I will be collecting my own seeds for future years.