Raised Beds Done

Almost every day since my last posting, I've been thinking about posting. And everyday I'd say to myself, "I'll wait until the raised beds are done. Then I'll have something of substance to show and actually write about." And then everyday progress on the raised beds was soooo slow.

Monday I finally finished. We started digging the raised beds last April. I had hoped to be done by the end of May, so that we could put in the garden on Memorial day, which is our traditional time to plant the garden. Obviously, we didn't make it. The project took more resources than I thought it would.

• 180 linear feet of pressure treated 2 x 4's
  
• 7 yards of class 1 gravel
  
• 2 yards of river sand
  
• 1400 pavers
  
• 3 bags of silica mortar sand
  
• 576 linear feet of cedar 2 x 6's
  
• 288 linear feet of cedar 1 x 4's
  
• 200 linear feet of cedar 2 x 4's
  
• 4 boxes of stainless steel decking screws
  
• Time to completion- 2 months
  

I knew it was going to take a lot of time to build - just moving that much dirt takes time. And we ran into several issues with the weather. If the weather had cooperated, we may have made it by the Memorial Day deadline. We also made the mistake of measuring the bricks incorrectly and digging the hole for the path to the wrong size. At least we caught it before we started laying the base and the brick.

We still have a bit of dirt to move around. Throughout the process, our strawberries have blossomed and started to set berries. We didn't have the heart to move them and lose this year's berry production. Once they have finished producing, we'll move them to one of the other beds and then fill in the hole they are currently in.

But now it is done and I have officially turned it over to Ms. Huis. It is now her problem to plant it and weed it. My job is to simply eat from it.

A view from the second floor of the house.

Same view from close up and the ground.