new raised bed garden

I finally got my new raised garden bed built!!!  Yes it is a little late but better then never and seeing how we had snow after mother's day, it might not be too late.  i just put down 2 yards of "topsoil".  i use that term lightly.  it's very sandy.  i was thinking of adding 1 yard of compost and top it of with some horse manure.  I just found that i have a source that i can get some nice aged poo .  any thoughts on this mixture ratio?  I was thinking of mixing the top of the "topsoil" with the compost and manure and try get this dirt some help.

Jeff, that looks awesome.  I would make sure that the horses weren't eating anything with herbicides or anything sprayed on it.  If the feed was good, I would just mix it all together.

Your bed looks awesome!

I'm guessing if you had snow on Mothers Day then you still have time to get the garden out.  This spring has been an odd one as this is the first time I remember ever having snow in may here.  My tomato and pepper plants were constantly in and out of the house because of the weather.

I would definitely add some compost and aged horse manure too.  I do know there is chemical that's sometimes used on hay that can linger in the composted poo and have some detrimental effects on crops though.  Also mulch is your friend and will help conserve water while providing organic matter.

Yep, mulch is on my to do list.  I have skipped that a few times from now and then and end up kicking myself later for it (or not doing it ).

Jeff,

That is an amazing looking raised bed setup!  I love that it is both tall and fenced in.  I just put a series of gates on one of my garden beds it was surprisingly expensive and labor intensive.  Yours looks like the better option.

Way to go!

Eric

I really like how, later in the season, you could easily wrap this in a fabric or poly and make a little wind-free warm zone.
Heck, you have 90% of the structure to turn this into a full greenhouse if you ever wanted!

Thanks everyone for the compliments.  It was a fairly easy build and cost me $350 for the wood and screws.  I didn't need to purchase the fence.  That was left over from the last garden.  The size is basically 10' x 12'.   2 x 10's stacked for the boxes and the rest is from 2 x 4's.  I did rip most of the 2 x 4's to make the stanchions.