Garden Building During Coronavirus

This crisis has been strange. A few months ago, I remember going to the pharmacy to buy some masks and every single pharmacy in my area was out of masks. This was strange to me because at that point we weren’t hearing that much about coronavirus on the news. I saw some videos on Facebook about the crisis in China and Italy and wanted to buy a pack of masks just in case, but then sh*t got real.

Time went on and everything changed, and soon we started noticing that fresh produce was not being restocked as much anymore in our local supermarkets, so then I began the panic about starting more seeds and building more raised garden beds. But how? I didn’t want to go to Home Depot and expose myself or my husband. Then I came across this article talking about the coming food shortages this year, specifically fruit and vegetable shortages, and my left eye started to twitch.

We already have three raised beds, but with six people in our household, we knew we were going to need to add more. We decided to add two more beds because it seemed doable right away.

We purchased two 10″ x 16′ douglas fir boards for $33 each and had them cut in the store at 5,’ 5,’ and 3′ lengths to make 5’x3′ beds. We used one board per bed and we also purchased a long post that we cut into foot lengths to support each corner. We put the beds together with 3″ decking screws.

We also got a few bags of raised garden soil and compost but there wasn’t much selection, so I figured I would try to fill the beds with dry twigs and sticks from around the yard and then add the soil on top. I filled the beds about 1/4 of the way and it became obvious that we needed more soil.

My usual compost connection fell through, so I ordered more organic soil and compost online from Home Depot for pick up the next day. Again, we were hesitant to expose ourselves but we had gloves and home made masks, and figured it would be a quick run just to pick up the order. This had become and absolute necessity in our minds, and we felt we had to take the risk to get set up as soon as possible. Soil and compost for both beds was about $110. As a side note: I was shocked to see the customer service staff in HD not wearing gloves or masks. My order was missing a bag of compost, so I had to wait for someone to bring it out and those were a long 15 minutes- I can’t even imagine working a whole shift.

• Total cost of these two (5′ x 3′ x 10″) raised garden beds filled with about 8″ of soil: ~$200
• Tip: If you order soil online for pick up, please remember that soil is very heavy and you will need help loading your vehicle. Under normal circumstances, store staff can assist you, but you should call ahead and find out if assistance is being provided during this pandemic.