Vegetable Garden Bed Creation, Richmond, VA

As I mentioned here, we broke ground last week for our exciting Spring 2012 project at our Show Gardens: Vegetable Gardens!

What we accomplished last week was essentially the creation of the 6 raised beds.

Our trusted vendor, Dave Call with JB Mulch helped us with this part of the project by donating a very significant amount of topsoil for the raised beds! A HUGE thank you to Dave and JB Mulch for making this project possible!!! (You can see Dave's generous donation being delivered in the video below- something about big truck deliveries is so exciting to us as it means a fun project is about to begin!)

Here's a quick video to show you how we got everything done!



For those of you who can't watch the video, or would like a more detailed explanation of how we got from bare lawn to 6 raised beds, here is a play-by-play of what went on here last week:


First, Rigo, Francisco, and Manuel worked hard to align the beds with the existing landscape elements (namely an existing path and our patio.) They pulled strings and read levels to make sure that the beds would be just right for the space (which is slightly sloped.)


Next, the team used a trencher to really define the bed edges. Once the mechanical trencher created the lines, Manuel and Francisco went through to manually clean up the edges with shovels and hard rakes.

Then, Rigo used the skidsteer to remove the majority of the existing turf from the bed areas and we hauled the organic material to our compost area:

Once the grass was removed, Rigo and his team began adding the topsoil blend to the bed areas in order to create the raised beds.

After a hard day's work, this is what we had accomplished:

The beds are created! Our next step is to add a rich mushroom compost to add nutrients for the vegetables we'll be planting! And, of course, we will keep you updated as we go!

What do you think so far?

Breaking Ground on our Vegetable Gardens in Richmond, VA

So we've recently announced (here and here) that we are starting an exciting new vegetable garden at our Show Gardens in Richmond, VA and we are breaking ground today!

Before I start to show you pictures of the process, let me explain a little bit about our show gardens so that we are all on the same page:

This is an illustrated drawing of our Show Gardens (with some computer-generated markings described below) designed by Tom Stuart, our long-time designer on staff here at Robbins Landscaping. The area outlined in red is the section that we installed in the summer of 2009. This is what it looks like (during the growing season!):

The letters below correspond with the letters on the plan above just to help you get a sense of the garden layout
A

B

C

D

E

The area outlined in yellow has not been installed according to this plan. In fact, it is currently a grassy patch that looks a little something like this:

So after much discussion on the best, most exciting way to use this space, we decided to install a vegetable garden there! (In the yellow-outlined space.)

Tom got to work planning out the design of the beds and we now have a concept for the vegetable garden!

Here's a little video of Tom explaining his thought process to you:



Now for those of you that are at work and can't watch this video, Tom basically explains that he is planning to construct 6 raised beds for our vegetable garden. The beds will not, at this point, be bordered by stone or timber but will be rectangular mounds of rich soil that will soon be filled with thriving vegetable plants! We plan to leave grass walkways between each bed to allow for easy maintenance and harvesting. The layout of the rectangular beds is in such a way that the grass paths will align with the sidewalk that leads to our office front door as well as to our existing patio.

The challenges that we know we will face are "critters;" we know that deer and rabbits live near our office and are pretty sure that woodchucks might be a threat as well. We haven't determined our best practice for deterring these critters, but we will let you know what we decided to do- and what does and doesn't work for us! After all, a large part of why we have a Show Garden is to test plants and ideas so that we can suggest great options for our clients!

So now that everyone has a good idea of the lay of the land, I'll be back soon with posts of the progress! Here's a sneak peak for you to see what exciting things are going on:

Vegetable Gardens in Richmond, VA!

That's right: the exciting new project for our Show Gardens that we hinted at yesterday is a Vegetable Garden!

We are going to be installing several raised vegetable beds as an addendum to our Show Gardens at our office in Colonial Heights. This idea is 'new' to our Show Gardens, but is a very old style of gardening that we can't wait to incorporate into our services.

Here's a video of Doug explaining our idea:



We are so excited for this project; it will be a great way to test out different kinds of vegetables as well as give back to the community! Once we begin harvesting our vegetables, we intend to donate the surplus to our local food bank.

Many of our team members have tended personal vegetable gardens for years; this year we are all going to pool our knowledge to tend the best vegetable garden that we can!

Does anyone out there tend a vegetable garden? Are you in the Richmond area? What do you think of our new addition?

Exciting New Project at Robbins Landscaping

Hi all!

Tomorrow we will 'unveil' an exciting new project we're starting at our Show Gardens!

We'll be working with some of our trusted vendors to create a really neat new garden space.

Here's a peak at the space right now, before we've started and work:

Our goals with this project are:

1. To test out a new old idea for any clients that are interested (you'll get the 'new old' adjectives after tomorrow morning!)

2. To create an educational environment to share what we learn with you and anyone else in the community

3. To do good in the community by donating proceeds from the garden space.


We break ground tomorrow! We'll be back with videos and more pictures!

We'd love to hear your feedback!