What did I/we accomplish already today?! A raised garden bed! Thanks to a tutorial by Craig and The Pioneer Woman, I was brave enough to give it a shot! I didn't even cuss (okay, maybe a little when I hit a knot in the wood and the screw wouldn't go in, but otherwise, I was cool as a cucumber).
I'd gone yesterday to get all of the supplies at Home Depot and was all ready to get started this morning, but it was raining. I was feeling defeated until (brilliant) Kevin suggested I back the cars out of the garage and get started on the preliminary work in there. Duh! I built the first layer frame in the garage and then braved some sprinkles while I moved on through the tutorial (set corner stakes, leveled it, added additional stakes). I also added a weed barrier like Craig suggested, since we've placed it on top of the existing lawn.
Just around the time I needed a second set of hands, it was naptime, so Kevin came out to hold the second layer of boards for me, and then we secured the second layer of frame to the stakes and added a dirt/manure/sand mixture! I'd called Kevin yesterday from HD to try to calculate how much dirt I needed to buy--neither one of us could figure out how to convert liters of dirt to square footage of finished bed size, so I just guessed on the amount and was about 1/2 the quantity off. So it's back to the Depot we go...
In a bit of well-we-needed-to-go-to-Home-Depot-anyway synergy, Lewis pulled off some trim from our built-ins in the basement this morning while he was playing, so we need to pick up a piece to replace that, too. :)
Here is our finished product, halfway filled:
Yay!
We chose this spot because this strip of yard (from here to the fire pit) is the only one that gets full sun. I tried a non-centered placement and a long-side-flush-with-the-brick placement (mainly to help with edging/mowing ease), but eventually Kevin and I decided it looked better set off a little bit from the brick. We figured that if we're edging 3 of the sides, why not another?
Sweet! I gave dad a book last year called The Square Foot Garden. You should check it out. It's about maximizing garden space for the most food grow-age. Yes, I just made up a word! Don't you just love spring???
ReplyDeleteI do love spring! I'll be sure to check out that book--thanks for the recommendation! Mom said they plan to build a bed when they get back out of the old deck wood.
DeleteThere is an old deck?
ReplyDeleteNot yet, but sounds like soon! Step 1, demolish old deck. Step 2, rebuild new deck. The deck has been on Mom's Honey-Do List to Dad since last year...Mom said they're going to tackle it together in May and use the old wood to build a raised bed.
Deletenice bed, Kristen!! did you use 1 by 8's?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mom! The tutorial said to use 2 x 6s (four were 8' long and four were 4' long).
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