The Raised Bed Project

4x8 cedar for raised beds

So the raised bed project got off to a flying start on Wednesday. We had a nice sunny day to build in and Paul got here at a reasonable hour. I bought 1x8 x 8s at Home Depot in cedar for the boxes and 2x2s for the corner posts. The cedar should be a bit rot-resistant and last longer than fir or pine. I still didn't want to use wolmanized wood as I was concerned about anything leaching into the soil. Layed out the wood on the front yard to get an idea of where the boxes should go and Paul set out to build six boxes.

 

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View of Boxes

The new front yard garden

The new beds got built rather easily once we got power to Paul and he built them on the flat surface of the driveway. Erin and I laid out the boxes and on the yard. As we had cut the posts at 12" from plain balusters (only .97 each) There was 4" sticking out that we pressed down into the soft soil. We'll now cover the bottom of the beds with cardboard and soil is expected to come in today to be shoveled on top of the cardboard. The cardboard will break down over time but will smother the grass at the bottom of the bed.

Paul building the beds on the driveway

Bleeding heart in the greenhouse

I could take some shots of the minor bulbs blooming in the garden but haven't yet this week. They are forming drifts of baby blue and pink under the amelanchier. The only plants in the greenhouse that are just popping into bloom are the Old Fashioned Bleeding Hearts in two-gallon pots. They are a month ahead of schedule as I had hoped to offer these for Mother's Day - Oh well, I think they'll go to market with me this week and I'll just have to tell people they are tender and could get frosted. Either that or I'll have to cut them back and regrow them which I don't think they would do by Mother's day and I don't think they would have any blooms. Oh, it's all a learning curve about this scheduling.

Prayers for Tootsie this week as we join Fertilizer Friday. Her Dad is ill and needs some prayers to recover. Check out the blog posts at the end and you'll get a view of all kinds of flowers blooming across the globe!