This is a dedicated, large raised bed my husband built in 2013, fenced off from animals that should be in use from late spring to fall.

The plants in the bed really struggled last year, and most failed to thrive. We've heard varying reasons this might be–too little of this, too much of that–a home soil tester proved inconclusive. So we've been adding egg shells, coffee/tea grounds, and the bedding from the chicken coop to it over the winter with plans for it to break down in the early spring.

We're also going to move around where the plants were and plant them a little later in the season–it doesn't get as much sun as we thought it would, and some of the areas next to the border get almost no sun at all.