Picture Perfect Cooking

Dreaming of summer and fresh food…

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Ok, Class, today’s lesson is “How to Build A Seriously Strong Raised Garden Bed In Just 5 Hours”.  I wanted a raised bed for strawberry and vegetable plants really, really, REALLY bad!  My extremely patient husband agreed to build one for me with my help.  In my mind, this would be so simple.  Bring up some leftover house-building wood from the basement (untreated, of course).  Cut it into the lengths we would need, screw them together, fill it with dirt, and VOILA, instant garden! 

Of course, I should have know that nothing is every quite as simple as you think it would be.  I rounded up not quite all the tools together near our building site.  I had to make several return trips to the tool closet.

I had used the watering can in a earlier task of moving a couple of hostas.  We got the wood out of the basement.

Patches decided that we had lost our minds and took a nap.  Oh, and right where he is laying is where we are going to put 2 rain barrels.  Right now, they are decorating my dining room. 🙂

We put the basic box together which measured 9’ 11 1/2” long and 5’4” wide.

You know, even if the ground looks fairly level, that doesn’t mean it is.  On one corner we had to put an extra 2×6 to level it out, but that’s ok.  I am going to plant potatoes in the deep end.  I was thrilled with the finished product.  I can just see it…a couple of rows of strawberries, a couple of rows of lettuce & carrots.  Several cucumber plants.  A few sweet pepper plants and maybe some herbs if there is enough room.  Yum!

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Last fall, I purchased a few bags of mixed daffodil bulbs at Lowe’s.  I had a nice surprise the other morning when I learned that one of the mix is a beautiful double yellow daffy.  I’m am going to have to search for the name, but here’s a look at it. 

Yesterday was a busy day around here.  We mowed and weed-whacked for the first time, and the yard looks so good.  C & I are planning on finishing up the front yard landscaping.  We planted 3 trees yesterday, one Granny Smith Apple, one Gala Apple, and one Kwanzan Cherry.  I have grand plans for the rest.  I plan on having 3 double red Knockout Roses in front of the garage, along with 5 Blue Star Junipers, and 2 more Helleri Hollies.  Down our retaining wall, I hope to put 9 Compacta Hollies and 5 yellow Knockout roses.  We also started laying edging around the front porch yesterday.

While we are on vacation this year, C & I are going to attempt to lay a paver path behind the garage to the deck.  If this turns out well and is not totally back-breaking work, we are eventually going to make a paver sidewalk in the front yard from the driveway to the front porch.  We will keep you updated on the progress.  Right now, I think I need to take another Tylenol.  I used muscles yesterday, that I hadn’t used in a LONG time!

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