Sixteen Raised Beds: Building Becca’s Outdoor Kitchen Garden
Reviving the avocado grove is our biggest project, and it is not a small one. But Becca has been building something else alongside it, right in our backyard, and she calls it her outdoor kitchen. By outdoor kitchen, she means sixteen 4×4 raised garden beds.
When we filmed this we were somewhere in the middle of the build: beds in, compost going in, and one of us working with a busted arm.
First, the avocado side of things
The trees are still the main event. One of our newer avocado trees at the house blossomed for the first time this year, which is always a good moment. We are planning to put in at least 30 to 40 more trees here on our home property, and up to 500 new trees at our 10 acres, about 20 minutes away. The replant starts as a straight replacement at the same density as the old trees; once the new trees are in, we plan to increase the density.
That replanting is part of a bigger effort to bring the commercial grove back, which we covered in reviving a 10-acre avocado grove: the well, the power and the new trees.
What is the outdoor kitchen?
Sixteen 4×4 beds, eight on each side, filled with what Becca fondly calls all that stinky, delicious compost. The plan for the space is a patch of grass in one part and the garden beds in the other, so it works both as a place to grow food and as a place for the family to be outside.
Becca busted her arm shortly before this (after a golf cart mishap, which has its own video), so Kirk is stepping in to finish the heavy work. Our son Neil also makes a cameo, because filming around here rarely happens without one of the boys wandering into frame to say hello.
Why a vegetable garden on an avocado farm?
This is not a side project. It is part of what Holmes Grown is about. Selling avocados is one piece of it, but the bigger idea is our family getting back to our roots and eating as much whole food as we can — and Becca wants to grow as much of that food as possible herself, and to inspire other people to try it too.
We have written before about growing more than avocados to feed our family, and about what working the grove taught us in food scarcity versus natural abundance. The raised beds are the next step in the same direction.
What to expect from us in the off season
Avocados spend a good part of the year simply growing. Once the fruit is on its way, there is a stretch where we mostly let the trees do their thing. That is when you will see a lot more kitchen, whole foods and gardening content from us: what goes into the beds, what comes out, and what Becca does with it.
Some of what grows here will end up alongside our avocados in dishes like Becca’s classic guacamole. Stay tuned for updates as the beds fill in.
And when the trees are ready again, our 4lb Hass box and 6lb Hass box ship free, picked the week they go out — between harvests you can join the waitlist on either page and we will email you when fruit is back. Until the trees are picking again, the avocado scoop, the Hawaiian shirt and our hats ship year-round.
This post is part of our guide to life on our family grove.
