Strawberry Fields Forever

I snapped this pic when Kate paused to retrieve the last few strawberry plants this afternoon.  So that's about that, then.  I must still purchase some netting to protect them eventually, but we don't expect more than a sporadic yield this first year.  Hopefully they are firmly established next year and give us a fair bunch.

Now we water, weed, wait and hope for the best...

The Plants Arrive!

When I got home from work yesterday, I found a larger box by the door that I wasn't expecting.  I guess I wasn't sure how they shipped plants, but I found out! 

At right, my wife starts to go through her new plants.  In these bags are small potted plants, some garlic bulbs, and what appears to be a bag of strawberry plant roots.

Kate has decided to go with more of an herb garden, which is fine with me. I've never been crazy about green beans and carrots. The different herbs she grows I know she will use in her cooking all the time, plus we can dry that stuff out and use it year-round.

So, the far garden bed is herbs on the topside (right side in pic) and garlic on the bottomside. Bonus!  We got some free lettuce seeds with the order so Kate made a small row of lettuce along the far garden's bottomside.  I'm crossing my fingers for the lettuce!

Here is where I sat and wrote where things were planted,  the 'Supervisor's Chair,' as neighbor Dave called it.  I haven't said much about him yet (here or on my main blog).  He is a very nice older man, a widower, right next door.  Between Jane and Dave I hope we never have any other neighbors.  Both are very nice, helpful, yet not nosy or intrusive.  Hopefully we have been the same.

The strawberrys bound for the other garden bed are chillin' and will be planted very soon.  Rain is coming this weekend so I hope that helps the plants and doesn't wash them away!

Fencing In The Garden

The fence was not my favorite part of yesterday.  It took up way too many hours of yesterday.  This was probably my least thought-out area.  I developed this idea using leftover bracing just recently.  I'm not sure what I thought I would do before.  I'm still not sure exactly what I'm gonna do about a gateway into the garden... 

Above is the (finally) mostly finished product, at least for this year.  I can plan a better fence/gate next winter.  All that's really left is to make the gate a little more feasable of an entryway for my wife to get in and out, and maybe a little more dirt to top it off.  I think we are supposed to get some rain tomorrow, so I do expect a little more settling of the dirt.

If you have any suggestions on how to easily connect and disconnect 2 chickenwire fences I'd be happy to listen in the comments!  I may end up having to build a gate yet.

A Ton of Dirt

A ton and a half, actually.

Today, one week after I had originally planned, we finally got the twin gardens filled with dirt.  I was hoping it would only take about 20 bags each, boy was I way off.  We went through 80 bags, 40 in each, and more will come as it settles in.  At about 40 pounds per bag, I threw around 3200 pounds of dirt today.  Wow.  My back is sore, yet not injured.  We'll see what it feels like tomorrow...

One of the next things to do is the fence around it.  I've just been making this up as I go along so we'll see how that turns out!

Rain, Rain, Go Away....

Well, I've had the 30 bags of dirt since Monday but haven't had a chance to fill the garden yet.  It hasn't rained all day every day, but always in the afternoon and evenings when I would have a chance to do it.  Hopefully soon.  I have a few extra days off coming up and would like to get some serious R & R instead of work work work.

Also, I've been looking ahead to fencing and netting.  Both will be a necessity with all the critters in the neighborhood.  My wifes plants will be arriving soon so now's the time!

Installation Successful

Last night (Wednesday), Our friends Bridget and Zubin were kind enough to come over to help move the boxes to their permanent destination behind the garage. Moving and placing them only took a few minutes, and it was so easy with 4 of us it was almost silly. So since it was so nice out, probably the warmest so far this spring, we planned on a few drinks and grilling out brats (and a veggie burger). It was alot of fun!

Today after work I went out and leveled them, top to bottom in the above pic from yesterday.  They slope down to the left away from the garage for drainage.  I also filled in the ruts I dug out around and under the sides so they would just fall into place.  I think we're gonna get rain Friday night and Saturday which I hope will be good to settle the dirt so I can pack it in on the sides again.  I'm hoping all is dry enough for Sunday so I can start the filling in process.  I'll have to stop procrastinating and get the new wheelbarrow put together by then!

Ready for Installation

The twin garden boxes are fully assembled and ready to install!

That will wait for another day, however.  While I believe it would be possible for me and Kate to install it ourselves, it definitely wouldn't be the smartest thing to do. They have a little heft to them so I'll see about rounding up some help for Friday afternoon or Saturday. I had thought about assembling them in the yard, but it was easier to square them up on the flat surface.

So far I'm pleased.  There will be some digging and filling I'm sure, but I hope they set down right where they should sit very easily.  Then all that's left (for the construction part) is maybe break up sod a bit more and fill the damn things with alot of dirt!  Hopefully less than 20 bags, probably more.

Each box is 5' x 8', outside dimensions, so each is a bit less than 40 square feet.  There will be a space between them of about 2 feet.  I've had this as a general plan for a while now but mostly I built and revised it in my head as I progressed.  I had felt hurried before this weekend, but I think we're about on track to have it ready in plenty of time for whenever people usually start planting.  My wife has her plan for that, I have focused on the building so we'll see what she does next...

Starting The Assembly

Sometime around noon today my wife started doing a thorough vacuuming of the house, prompting me to get out of the house and get started on building the twin gardens.  I proceeded to make big pieces of wood into smaller pieces of wood then putting them together again.  I almost bought sawhorses but I thought I could make do with the old box shelves I had instead.  Turns out the trash bins were even better for my back because of the height. 

Below is a mock-up of one of the boxes. Only the sides are assembled, the 2x6's ,2 at the top and 1 at the bottom, are not attached yet.  The one at the bottom of the pic will actually be attached at the top of the sides.  This is the high side that will be next to the garage.  The bottom 2x6's on each side on this end may be trimmed to fit the landscape more or else go underground.  That will be determined in the backyard.

That's as far as I went today.  Tomorrow morning I need to run back to the lumberyard for some studs to use as bracing, more screws, and 1-10' treated 2x6 that I somehow shorted myself on my lumber list.  If you look to the left you'll see the new wheelbarrow, still unassembled, that will help us fill the boxes with dirt. 

It's finally starting to take shape!

Sod Off!*

My plan has been to till up the areas where the twin gardens will go, even though the sod will be several inches below the final surface of the garden. That turned out to be rather unfeasable. The large rear-tined tiller that will go through sod required a trailer or open truck to transport, of which I have neither. So I decided to try a smaller front-tined tiller and break up the top layer of sod with a shovel first. Since I reserved one for this morning, I had to go out last night and do a little work. The soil was actually not as hard as I had feared and I soon realized that just digs with the shovel should be fine after all. First thing this morning I cancelled the tiller and saved some money.

Above is what the area looks like today. I pretty much mapped it out (with my wife's help) with a shovel and a tape measure. This morning I finished the edges and turned alot of the sod near the garage, the area that will have the least dirt added above it.  All in small bits and at an easy pace to avoid the usual back issues.  As a happy coincidence, the timber edging the garage aroud the corner is a perfect length- no cutting or removing it!  I may break up more sod if it seems necessary later, but I want to have the wooden box out there to see what it looks like.

That was last night and this morning, this afternoon I started building the boxes.  More on that to come...


*Apologies to readers across the pond if the title is offensive.  If you say that to someone here they would probably be mostly amused at the odd saying.  I thought it was a clever title for this post, is all.

Turning Leaves

Some snow has melted in the backyard, where it gets good sun so yesterday I went out to turn the leaves. Last fall's leaves from the back yard I put in a small area behind the garage. The intent is to compost the leaves and kill the grass where I expected a small garden to be. Since then my wife's plans have gotten grander and I've bought into it. Last year I expected to till up that area and that would pretty much be that, maybe put a fence around it if needed. Building a raised bed garden has increased the work and planning to be done. It's not level ground so it's more than just building a box.

Here's what it looks like as of yesterday. I should pick one spot to take pics from so I can show the progression. That might be an idea...