Raised beds

Nothing like putting your father-in-law to work on his vacation. Brad gladly volunteered to help build something we've wanted for years -- some raised gardening beds. He's much more competent with the measuring tape than this photo suggests:



We used with 2X12 cedar boards and built a 12X10 foot U-shaped box. Those boards weren't cheap, so we were extra careful. Sarah sketched out a plan, we laid the boards out and then Sarah resketched the plan again, just to make sure we didn't make a mistake and waste too much good wood.

Claire watched intently from a distance in granny's clutches as her papa cut the boards with a circular saw.



We screwed 2-foot-long 4X4s into the boards ahead of time. Then we used the forms to guide our post hole digging. We dug the holes deep enough to leave at least 18 inches of post in the ground and used a level and square to keep edges flat and straight.



Claire helped at times and also picked out the nightcrawlers at the bottom of the holes.



By the end of Day One, this was the scene from the side of our front porch. The project turned out to be more involved than either of us expected. But thanks to Brad's sharp eye, the beds ended up nearly perfectly square all the way around.



Now it was time to haul dirt. Thankfully, the last time he was here, Brad helped me pick out this $700 truck.



We got Clackamas Landscape Supply's four-way garden mix, which includes some valuable dairy manure, sand, clay and compost. This stuff tumbles gracefully out of your hand when you pick it up.



It's some well-drained black gold, as Claire will tell you.






I wish I could say we'd planted something in it by now, but we spent this weekend running the truck around again, this time for some compost for the front garden beds. Stay tuned. There's plenty of spring left. Increasingly, there's plenty of spring in Claire's step, too, which may complicate things.