Modern Homestead Barbie

I think I'm going to contact the people at Mattel because they need to make a new Barbie doll. She's "Modern Homestead Barbie" and comes with cast iron pans and a cordless drill. That idea came to me while I was building six new beds for my Square Foot Garden. I think it's high time they made Barbies a little more like real women!

Most of the snow from the May 1st storm has melted and it was nearly 60 degrees today. Beautiful day to work outside.

Here's what the garden looked like before adding the new beds. 

I built four 4' x 8' beds and two 4' x 10' beds. They're made from untreated two by twelves. Remember, do not use pressure treated lumber for vegetable or herb beds because chemicals can leech into the soil and into the produce you'll eat. Yuck!

G.W. helped me get all this lumber home in his big truck.

While I was hard at work, this is what was going on over in the corral. Nap time.  They're so darned cute!

These garden beds went together like the others...I drilled all the pilot holes first.  The pilot holes take the longest. 

Once they're done, the beds go together in about 15 minutes each.  It's simple to do.  The toughest part is moving the boards and partially completed beds around to work on. That's heavy lumber!

I'm going to recommend that Mattel give Modern Homestead Barbie a Dewalt cordless drill. It's a workhorse. Lordy, I hope they don't decide to make it pink!

Here's the garden after the addition of the new beds. I'll fine tune their placement when I'm ready to fill them with the Square Foot planting mix.  

Yes, it's a huge garden, especially for the intensive Square Foot  method.  I've got just over 400 square feet of garden space!  My eventual goal is to grow the majority of our own food. That will come gradually. This first year is mainly about building the structures. Another project for this year is installing a drip irrigation system. 

Over the next few years, I'll learn by trial and error which vegetables will grow in my climate. We live at high altitude and have a short growing season. We're either in a warm Zone 3 or a cold Zone 4. It's going to be a challenge to produce longer season veggies like tomatoes, eggplant and corn. Using the hoop houses may extend the season just enough.  Time will tell.

Meanwhile, over at the corral....still napping!

One last thing...Modern Homestead Barbie should also come with a large bottle of Advil. Her back's going to ache a lot!