Going Bigger for the First Year

After planting 5-6 producing plants last year in a small corner of the yard, my wife and I decided we wanted to plant more this year. Our biggest problem is we live in town, where the rabbit population is insane and eat everything we plant to the ground. They will eat all the flowers and tender plants we have tried to plant in the past. With no real predators, no free roaming dogs or cats like on the farm, they have the run of the place. It's not uncommon to see 3-4 or more rabbits in your yard at one time

Our solution: A Standing Garden

One of my wife's coworkers was building these and we thought this would keep the critters out. We also got some cedar planters and a few pots to put on the deck, but more about those later. This is pretty big, its a full 4 x 8, and 12" deep. We placed a double layer of landscaping fabric on the wire mesh bottom to help slow drainage and retain the fill.

We then used a 4:1 mixture of potting soil and peat moss to fill the bed to 75% full of material and then planted our plants.

What We Planted

Lemon Grass	Green Beans	Lemon Balm
Peppers	Broccoli	Tomatoes
Cauliflower	Carrots	Sugar-snap Peas
Cucumber

The turn out

Not so great actually. Everything in this bed is now struggling to grow and yellow. We have two thoughts, It was in 100% sun, and it was just too much for the plants or we watered it too much. We have relocated it to a shadier part of the yard and we are trying to water it less. I think think the potting soil just retains too much water at time and next year we need a little compost or topsoil mixed in. Here is a high level

• Half the Sugar Pea plants died before producing anything
• The Bean plants are producing green beans half the size of my other plants
• The Tomatoes - have 2-3 tomatoes per plant, they are really struggling.
• The pepper plants have not grown at all since we planted them
• The Carrots are about the best looking plants.

Next Steps

We already moved it to a more shade, and we will try to water it less. I am also going to get some fertilizer and get it in there, see if I can bring these back. I also need to move all the plant off my deck because they look the same, and are just yellow. My wife has volunteered to move all the peonies that are next to where the little in ground garden we have that is booming. I am going plant another round of seeds and hope for a late harvest. They typically have a 60-90 day grow period so Aug - Sep should be fine for growing.

My only harvest - Not from the Standing garden

There were a few handfuls of sugar peas, but I never took a photo of them. All I have are the green beans!

Grow On! Stack on!!

(^^ made by Willsparks88)