Building the beds
After some much, much needed time off last week, we got back to work on the house. I briefly mentioned looking at the garden beds layout in the side yard. Well, the time came to get started building. When we moved, I brought a bunch of PVC decking boards with us. They were leftovers from a project and were real expensive so I didn’t want them to go to waste. But I hadn’t found the right use for them…..until now.
PVC Decking Boards
They were just the right height to make raised planter beds out of. And being PVC, they’ll last as long as we want them to. After reviewing the layouts versus the lengths of the material that I had on hand, I found that I was able to do 5 planter beds that are around 4′ wide x 11′ long. That’s a lot of garden area!
Installing the planter boxes
I got all of the boards cut to size. Then began the real work. I strung a line parallel with the house and used that to work off of. I laid out each planter and then dug out around the perimeter as necessary. The ground slopes down towards the lake so there were a few of them that needed dug in on the high side. After getting the digging done, I built the frames and then put stakes in each corner to hold them in place until they get filled with dirt.
Sprinklers
Before the soil went in, I trenched over to our irrigation system for the house and tied in a new line. I brought a sprinkler head up in the middle planter bed. This sprinkler will cover up to 30′ so it will be able to water all of the beds. Great. I buried the lines and my part was done!
That’s some nice dirt
Oceana took it from there. Before putting the soil in the beds, she opted to dig out to remove any weeds from the bottom of the beds. Hopefully that will slow them from regrowing quickly. Next up was the soil. Oceana did the investigative work in locating the soil for the garden beds. We ended up going with Butwell Stone and Soil just down the road from us. Their premium topsoil is real nice looking stuff! A dump truck driver dropped the load right next to the beds and then Oceana got to shoveling. She’s such a trooper.
Transplanting
Once the soil was in place, Oceana transplanted all of her seeds that she had planted a week or two ago. The beans sprouted up like crazy as well as some pumpkins and cucumber. We’ll be making an arched trellis out of 16′ long cattle panels that the beans, watermelons, and other vining plants will be growing up. It should look pretty neat and work real well.
Grow little plants. Grow!
Concrete work
While Oceana was having her fun digging and planting, I opted for some easier work. Concrete. Easier work is said in sarcasm as there’s nothing easy when it comes to concrete work. We moved the location of the main entry door into the shop door and now we don’t have a concrete pad before going inside. We’re looking to change that. I formed up for the new pad and then dug out the area as necessary. I ended up going deeper so as to have a footing (in case I put a post on it later on) and then I extended the bottom area out to the asphalt.
Mix. Pour. Repeat
I started mixing and pouring and mixing and pouring and soon realized that I was going to be short (because I made it thicker and larger than I had planned). Oceana was kind enough to make a box store run (it was Sunday and Bagwell’s was closed) to pick up extra bags. She got back and I kept mixing and pouring. And soon realized that we were short. Again. She made another run and came back with enough to get us finished. I really need to learn how to estimate concrete! I got the last bit poured and then troweled the surface smooth. After it set up a bit, I troweled it again and then drug a push broom across the top for a light texture. I finished the edges with an edger and that was that. Later that night I removed the form boards.
Formed and finished 
Form boards removed
That’s all, folks
Well, that’s all for this week. It was nice to get stuff accomplished on the house again. My work load is picking up to borderline insane again so I’m hoping I can squeak out enough time to keep making progress. We’ll see! As always, thanks for following along our crazy journey.
Love following!
Wishing you both good health,fun and continuing success!
Thanks Marilyn! We’re glad you guys are following along when you’re on your own adventure. Last I heard you were on a broad reach off Florida’s west coast. Sounded fun!
So glad to see all the plants starting to grow! Oceana has become quite the gardener; we know how much she loves the fresh fruits and veggies. Glad you got the concrete pad done in front of the craft room too. Little by little it’s coming along.