Our garden never came into being "all at once."
It wasn't a project from a catalog or a ready-made realization created by a professional team. It was built in stages. Evenings after work, weekends, sometimes in full sun, and sometimes in light rain. It changed with us, our children, and new ideas.
Although many photos mainly show me, the boys, and grandpa with shovels and wheelbarrows, the truth is that we created this garden together from the beginning. My wife supported us at every stage of the work, helped plan subsequent plantings, and, most importantly, immortalized the entire process in photos and videos. Thanks to her, today we can revisit those moments and see what the beginnings of our vegetable garden looked like.
And perhaps that's why it holds such immense value for us today.
April 2024. It all started with a pile of earth
Looking at the photos today, it's hard to believe that this is how our vegetable garden began.
There were no tomatoes, herbs, or strawberries yet.
There was no automatic watering, evening lighting, or first harvests.
Instead, there was a huge pile of earth, a few empty concrete wood boxes, and a group of helpers ready for action.
The youngest, of course, wanted to participate in everything from the start. Every spadeful of earth mattered, every wheelbarrow ride was a grand mission, and every new box meant another stage of the great construction.
For us, it was work.
For the children - an adventure.
From an ordinary lawn to a real vegetable garden
When we started creating the first garden beds, we knew one thing - we wanted them to be durable, practical, and fit the natural character of our garden.
After much searching, we found a solution that immediately captivated us - concrete wood.
A material that looks natural and warm like real planks, but at the same time is extremely durable, resistant to moisture, frost, and the passage of time.
It was from these elements that our main vegetable gardens were created.
What we like most is that with each passing season, they blend more and more into the surrounding greenery. They don't look like a new element of the garden. They look as if they have always been here.
A great family build
The most beautiful thing, however, is that this garden has been a joint project of the whole family from the very beginning.
I, the boys, and grandpa were busy building, setting up boxes, and transporting successive wheelbarrows of earth. Grandpa, as always, proved to be an indispensable handyman. He is a man who can fix almost anything and has been helping us with many projects around the house for years.
My wife was with us the whole time. She supported us organizationally, helped plan subsequent stages of work, and simultaneously documented everything with her camera. It is thanks to her that we have preserved the photos that remind us today of what the beginnings of our vegetable garden looked like.
I remember that day perfectly. The wheelbarrow ran almost non-stop, the earth disappeared at an alarming rate, and the children, with great enthusiasm, tried to help at every stage of the work.
Looking at these photographs today, I see something much more than just the construction of boxes.
I see time spent together.
I see a family that created something with their own hands.
In a world full of screens, rushing, and constant phone-gazing, such moments become increasingly precious.
From the first boxes to the Strawberry Tower
When we built the first raised garden beds in April 2024, we had no idea how much the garden would change in subsequent seasons.
At first, there were just four large concrete wood boxes, a few ideas, and a desire to create a place where we could grow vegetables, fruits, and herbs together.
With each passing year, the garden grew with us.
New plants, new experiences, and new ideas emerged.
One of them was the Strawberry Tower, which we built in the autumn of 2025.
It was created with strawberries in mind, which have always been our favorite fruits. We wanted to use a small space as efficiently as possible and at the same time create a place that would become an adornment of the vegetable garden.
Today, it's hard to imagine the garden without it.
It's where the children look for the first red fruits every year.
It's where the strawberries for homemade desserts come from.
And it's thanks to it that we were recently able to tell the story "From Bush to Hammock," when the boys picked fruits for a cheesecake prepared by my wife.
Four huge concrete wood raised garden beds
Today, our garden has four large raised garden beds, measuring 240 × 120 cm and 66 cm high.
They are made of concrete planks and posts, which blend beautifully with the greenery. We really like this combination of the natural look of wood with the durability of concrete.
Over time, we also created smaller planters made of horizontal concrete palisades. This is where some of the herbs, flowers, and smaller plants grow, which we wanted to have closer to the terrace and relaxation area.
Automatic watering - because a garden also needs balance
From the beginning, we knew that with a larger number of beds, manual watering would quickly become very time-consuming.
Therefore, all our vegetable gardens were equipped with an automatic drip irrigation system controlled by an electronic controller.
Thanks to this, each plant receives exactly as much water as it needs, and we can dedicate more time to what is most important - spending time together in the garden.
A garden that also lives at night
In the evening, our garden transforms completely.
We've hidden delicate garden lights among the plants and beds, creating a unique atmosphere after dark.
The light subtly illuminates the paths, raised beds, and leaves of plants. It reflects off the concrete wood, creating a peaceful ambiance that is hard to capture in photos.
This is when we most enjoy sitting in a hammock, listening to the crickets, and simply relaxing after a long day.
A garden built with your own hands tastes different
Today, these photographs have a much greater value for us than just a mere construction documentation.
They show not only boxes, soil, and plants.
They show time spent together.
They show children who grew up with the garden.
They show a grandfather who was always ready to help.
And they show my wife, thanks to whom these memories were captured in photographs.
Looking at our garden beds today, we see not only vegetables and green leaves.
We see hours of shared work, conversations, and laughter.
We see a garden that matured with us through successive seasons.
And perhaps that's why vegetables from our own garden taste different.
Because memories ripen with them.
And when everything is watered, weeds are pulled, and the children are tired from a whole day of running among the beds, our favorite moment arrives.
Silence.
The scent of mint.
The evening light.
And a few peaceful moments in a hammock, from which you can watch the garden live its own rhythm.
Because after a whole day of work, the most beautiful moments are these simple ones - shared time, nature, and a place we built together step by step.