With the threat of rain this weekend, Lisa and I played hooky Friday afternoon and built these raised beds. They are each 4' by 12' and effectively double our existing garden area. Because they are terraced in a bank, they allow us to put an otherwise problem area to good use. It is constructed of 2X6 lumber so you can see they are quite deep at the front.
Our next challenge is to fill the beds with some descent soil so we can start planting this years garden. We'll use some of the top soil Tim piled up back when he did the initial earth moving as well as composted leaves, saw dust, horse manure ( we got a truck load last week) and some peat moss to lighten our wonderful clay. Unfortunately, it has rained all day Saturday and turned everything into slimy muck so we'll have to wait till it dries up a bit to get the Kubota with front end loader out to do the deed. In case you were wondering why we chose to do this with untreated lumber its because we have it on good authority that the chemicals that preserve the wood are quite carcinogenic and will leach into our vegetables. Better to replace a few boards over time and avoid the bad stuff. We will install some plastic to line the inside walls of the beds before we fill them so that we can minimize the amount of prolonged contact with wet soil.
We're still waiting to hear from the State but don't expect much until the end of the month. This process makes evolution look downright careless and quick. (OK, so I exaggerate) In the meantime, we'll get things planted and spend our energy on things we CAN do something about. Lisa has mapped out where we'll plant things and has started tomatoes, peppers, and sage seedlings under our grow lamps and we'll soon start some lettuce, onions and potatoes in the ground.
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