My Big Green DOGE Project 2025

This is a Documentary Of Garden Efficiency (DOGE, get it?!) project. I call it the big green DOGE project. How big? It's 70 feet by 1.8 feet by 1 feet metal raised bed garden.

I'm an enrolled student in an university teacher preparation program and a full time high school teacher with an emergency license at the same time. That means I deal with more than a hundred PERSONS on a daily basis and numerious reading and assignments on weekends. I sleep for 4 hours at night from September to June. You can imagine PLANTS have not been on my mind from September to June and my backyard garden became a total embarrassment. As soon as the school was over in early June, I started the big green DOGE project. The results do not disappoint me. If it's not too late to start the big green DOGE project in June, it's never too late to start anything now. That's the motto I learned from it. Now is never late! Act now!

2 of KFN 2PCS 12x1.8x1FT Galvanized Raised Garden Bed-Oval

2 of KFN 8x1.8x1FT Galvanized Raised Garden Bed-Oval

2 of KFN 2PCS 4x1.8x1FT Galvanized Raised Garden Bed-Oval

The pictures show what the beds look like at different angles. I had to buy combinations of differnt lengths of the raised bed to fit my backyard space. I have a 4FT bed left because at that time they didn't have a one pack of 4FT bed, I had to buy a pack that has 2PCS. I think by next year this time, it will be a flower bed.

1 of 48in x 100ft Hardware Cloth 1/2 inch

46 of 2 ft garden u post

46 of MUKLEI 50 PCS 2.2 Inch Orange Safety T Post Rebar Caps for T and U

6" Garden staples

1 bag of small zip ties

Weed control fabric

Animal traps

Fabric scraps or jeans waist band

Before you start the destruction, it's important to make sure the likelyhood of raining is low so you're not going to be rushed or have to use tarp to cover the soil to prevent soil runoff to the grass by the rain. It took me at least a whole day to scoop out the soil and then put it back in at each site. (I had 3 sites in my backyard.) May you have the sky's cooperation!

First, pull out all the fence posts. There were a couple that were really hard to pull out. I even took a stool and sat there trying to wiggle wiggle wiggle the post to no avail until I poured water in the holes, they came out easily. Make sure you use water!

Then, remove the old plastic and fence.

Next, lay weed control fabric along the bed. Scoop out the soil to the weed control fabric to prevent it from getting in the grass and suffocating the grass.

First, lay wire on the bottom of the bed to prevent rodents from digging holes in the raised bed. I did not use the wire mesh at the first site. Animals digged through from under and killed some plants. It's a huge loss!

Next connect the new metal raised bed according to the illustration in the box. It's super easy. A child can do it. My son did that. He is a no mannual guy. Had he looked at the illustration, he would have noticed the top and the bottom rims of the bed are slightly different. But he did it upside down. When I noticed the problem I already had soil in it. It's not as big problem as not lay wire mesh under the bed. If I don't tell, nobody will know.

Last, scoop the soil back in the new bed. One day my son worried it was going to rain. He scooped the soil so quickly that he made holes in the fabric. I used 2 buckets to transfer the extra soil to compost bin.

So much about gardening is to protect, protect, and protect your plants from animals. Laying wire on the bottom and the two FT fence all around are crucial but they still can't prevent chipmunks and voles, the two big bad boys, from eating everything. That's why I use animal traps.

Anyway, install the fence tightly enclosing the bed. Use garden staples and u posts to keep the fence neat and tight with the bed. It's important to cover the top of post with a cap to prevent injury to the gardener or children playing in the backyard. I also use fabric scrap to wrap the top edge of the wire fence to prevent it from snagging my clothes when I bend close to it.

This step is earier said than done. It'll be great if you have a helper. I was a one-woman show. I used my feet to make sure the fence is tight against the bed. I used my knees to hold on the post while I hammer them into the ground. Wearing gloves makes my hands sweat and clumsy. I worked a lot of time without gloves. I got cut by the fence a few times and my right hand hammered my left hand. Second to the last picture shows my son put an ice pack on my hammered left hand. Last picture is me making fun of my hands. Don't hammer your own hand!

This is the easiest step. I started popcorn, tomato, cucumber, and climbing squash indoors. They were ready to be transplanted weeks before the bed was done. Pepper plants were the only seedlings left in stores by the time the bed was done. I bought four of them. I decided to grow microgreens in the rest of the garden space. So far, radish and buckwheat, and cilantro are huge success. I really like sunflower microgreens. But birds, volves, and chipmunks ate every single seed I dropped in the soil before they could germinate. I'm growing fenugreek for the first time this year. I may try alfalfa microgreens too.

Plants in raised bed need more water and fertilizer than the plants in ground soil. If it doesn't rain in a stretch, water them every a few days and use fertilizer every one or two weeks are the things to do before you can harvest, which is the ultimate reward in gardening.

So far, I have harvested much microgreens and some cucumbers. Soon, squash and tomato will be ready. Popcorn will be the last, late in October or November, to harvest. Last picture shows last year's harvest.

That's all. If you have any questions, please connect with me. I'm always delighted by questions.

Here is a video tour of the result of my big green DOGE project 2025.