How Does Your Garden Sow?

Now that we've lived in our new house for a full year, the spring flowers are (finally) blooming and temps are somewhere above freezing, I'm ready to reboot my gardening skills.  Now, please don't go thinking I'm an experienced gardener or anything- 'cause I am most certainly not!  I'm actually one of those types of people that tend to (no, strike that, always) bite of more than I can chew.  Just ask my husband - he'll most certainly agree (especially since he's the one who helps me dig myself out of those situations!)  These ideas just seem so exciting, doable and manageable when in my head and then the reality tends to prove otherwise.  That said, I'm doing it and that's that.

I have had an 8'x8' raised bed garden in my previous home and, despite me, it's done incredibly well (actually too well - it was always spilling over it's sides by the end of the summer!). This year, in an attempt to keep my gardening bounty contained within the boundaries of my garden, I'm hoping to at least double that space to some combination of 4'x8' or multiple 4'x4's.  Not exactly sure what layout will best take advantage of my backyard's sun and be so convenient I'll have to trip over it whenever I go out back (and thus, be forced to pull weeds more frequently).  I'm thinking that the 8' width was too wide and 4' may be a better maximum width - that way you can reach it from the grass and can't use the "oops, I forgot my gardening shoes" excuse).

My previous garden was entirely organic and this year I'm going to try to do something similar (I'm sure I can't call it totally organic - I know some of my seeds aren't organic).  But, we're going to try to avoid all chemical use and exposure by using natural cedar planks, using our own compost (well, at least what the racoons haven't taken), adding peat moss and trying to stick with all-natural fertilizers.  We are using an organic lawncare service as well.  My lot backs up to a ravine that leads straight into the Olentangy River and I have kids and it just seems like there's no reason to have that kind of sketchy stuff in our backyard, our water bodies or our bodies!

My seeds have been started indoors and I'll be ordering soil just as soon as I make up my mind about bed sizes.  Man oh man, it's hard to figure out which step is A and which is B sometimes!  I just get to chomping at the bit and want to go-go-go!  There's just so many products to consider and so little time to go check them all out.  I'm currently debating whether there is an affordable raised bed kit I can buy that will allow me (as opposed to my husband) to install the beds or if just buying the pieces separately is best (for price, quality and ease of assembly).  I'm going to go check out a cedar kit at Home Depot tonight - looks like it may be an option worth considering. More will be forthcoming - stay tuned!