Repurposed Raised Garden Beds….

[Geffellz18]

Wife’s been wanting to try a garden for some time now, so I am repurposing some airport runway marker sign frames that my dad acquired many years ago in an auction of decommissioned items to build some raised garden beds.
Not 100% sure of which airfield they came from, but more than likely it was one of the ones affiliated with Whiting Field back home where dad worked and retired as a civil service contractor.
They are fiberglass so I think they should serve us well for the remainder of our years!
They measure about 12-14” tall and 4-1/2-5’ square laying flat.

I told her that I’d strip them out with some pallet wood, but she opted to have them painted….So a little spray paint of her choice of color and we’re almost in business…

I welcome any ideas from the “pro’s” on here for what to plant first!

Example of what these were once used for:

Before & after:

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

That's cool . Plant whatever y'all enjoy but maters would be my first choice.

 

[Geffellz18]

Got them filled in and planted a small variety of veggies, along with tomatoes.
Bell pepper mix, cabbage, squash mix & cherry and slicing tomatoes….got a Cherokee purple tomato and strawberries, but the wife preferred to plant those and place on the balcony.

 

[Geffellz18]

Added to the garden this weekend….Had a good amount of top soil/compost mix left over from what I got for the raised beds. Next to the beds was going to be my new burning area, but with doing some clearing around the yard, another perfect area was created, so I spread the ash from what been burned already, then laid down the remainder of the mix about 3-4” thick.
Planted Silver queen corn & sugar baby water melons.
Not hoping for too much, but maybe we’ll get a little lucky.

 

[Geffellz18]

Getting a few sprouts popping through-Progress!

 

[Geffellz18]

Man, the squash just took off! Got a few veggies that are ready and several more that are still growing.
Tomatoes are doing ok, all fruit so far are in the small side, but all green so I’m guessing they are still growing. Going to prune the plants a little based on comments in another thread on here to see how they do…Plants look healthy to me, but I’m no pro and they are pretty bushy.
Cabbage getting big, but no ball yet-Maybe the variety we got doesn't do that shrug-Peppers have a few blooms on them, so hoping for a few off of them. Had a nice bell, but I knocked it off. Had some sort of mild chili pepper early in too that we put into some fried rice…Nothing yet since.
Sugar baby watermelon, canteloupe, & cucumbers starting to make progress
Only 3 stalks of corn came up so hoping for the best…


The biggest one below is right at 11.75”

 

[Geffellz18]

Squash is pretty much done. Just a few more zucchini left to pick after they get a little bigger. The pattypan and acorn squash are finito’ though.
Never had pattypan or acorn squash, so anyone with any good recipes I’m all ears!
A few small maters were ready to pick too. They were labeled as slicing tomatoes, but guessing they are just cherry tomatoes of some sort. No bigger than a half dollar.


Blueberry bush put out a pretty good harvest this year too! Have two of the three I planted left, but only one produces a sizable amount.

 

[Geffellz18]

Melons starting to develop. Have 4 so far that are about quarter size and a few more just starting to form!

 

[ucfireman]

You done good.

 

[cjones]

I missed this post earlier.

It all looks great! Amazing how much food you can get from such a small plot, ain't it?

 

[Geffellz18]

First melon of the season-wasn't aware they weren’t seedless, but just the right size for the family & nice & sweet!
Have several on the vine still growing, along with several cantaloup starting to grow.

 

[Geffellz18]

Todays project was expanding the garden. Added three raised beds. Will most likely add one more….
Got strawberries, lettuce, peppers, okra, cucumbers, yellow squash, string beans of some sort, watermelon, canteloupe & maters planted.
Hoping we have some luck this season!

 

[Geffellz18]

Gardens doing good-Pretty full I’ll admit, but the neighbor gave us about 10-12 mater & pepper plants on top of what we had planted, so they are chock full plant wise. Maters haven’t started to grow though-assuming due to the relatively cool weather.

Harvesting a little already! The cucumbers are already doing better than LY as we didn’t get any.
Squash nearly doubled in size just during the week we were out of town.
Thought they may have gotten too big so tried one last night & it was Gewt!