Gardening: Raised Bed Garden from a recycled pallet

This summer was the first time we had a vegetable garden.  We started small for this year since it was pretty much a trial run.  

My nieces and I started some seeds in one of those little greenhouse kits from the hardware store.  Once the seeds started to grow, Joe built his version of a raised bed. 

He recycled an old pallet for the base, bought some lumber for the sides and added some wheels on the bottom. 

This worked fine for our small garden this summer.  We did move some of the tomato plants out of it and into buckets.  Next year I want something bigger and better! 

If this bed stands up to the winter weather, I plan on using it as a tray to start my seeds next year.  The wheels will make it very easy to put them out in the sun or move to the shade if it's too bright for the delicate plants. 

We're really, really new to gardening.  Both of us grew up in the city and although my mom planted a beautiful flower garden in the yard of my childhood home, I never paid much attention to the process. 

The picture up above is from the beginning of June when everything was still small, I wish I would have taken a picture of it when it was nice and full.  We had a zucchini plant and a summer squash plant (they both died last week), we have several varieties of tomatoes, banana peppers, rosemary and boxwood basil. 

I'm really excited to plant our vegetable garden next spring and have been bookmarking ideas I find on the internet.  If you have any tips or suggestions for this beginner gardener, I'd be very appreciative!  Have a blog post about your garden?  Leave a link to your post in the comments section! 

I'll be linking this post to the following blog carnivals: 

• Works For Me Wednesday
• Tip Day Thursday