Yesterday turned out to be a very busy and productive day. Mike was able to get pallets that were designed to carry long pieces of wood for decking. The pallets measure about 15 feet long and 2-1/2 feet high. Mike and Heather positioned the first four pallets in the garden on top of a layer of weed screen. Mike connected the pallets and added the bracing. Unfortunately, I did not get out there with my camera until this was all done. Mike's parents and brother arrived to help out and that is when I remembered to start taking pictures.
Mike connected each set of two pallets lengthwise to give us a bed length of about 30 feet. The pallets are set apart approximately 3 feet, giving us a raised bed with about 90 square feet of planting space. This is the first of two raised beds we expect to have in the garden.
Here is the Carrigan work crew!! Left to right: David, Mike, and Richard.
And here is a wide view of the first pallet in the project.
And of course, Bebe was in the middle of it all, supervising as usual.
Meanwhile, Mike's mother, Rita, and Heather were working at the plant table. Every year, Rita brings us seeds and/or cuttings from her garden. Here they are transplanting cornflower plants to larger containers and planting 3 different kinds of tomato seeds.
And Heather recently discovered the perfect plant holder!!
The insides of the pallets are lined with plywood, to keep the dirt in, and then covered with plastic, to keep the water from rotting the wood. Here is before the plastic lining.
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And here after it is lined. Sorry the picture is not great, but the sun was so bright!
And then the filling begins.
First a layer of wood chips, to help maintain moisture, generously donated by our neighbors, Rick and Michelle.
Then a compost mixture, Mike's parents brought for us, is added to cover the wood chips.
Richard fills the wheelbarrow . . .
. . . and Heather helps him dump it into the raised bed and spread it evenly.
After everything is covered with wood chips and compost, bags and bags of
planting soil will be dumped into the planter.
This is as far as we got. If any of us can still walk tomorrow (??), we'll continue with the filling process. After the bags of planting soil are dumped and spread, we'll cover it all with topsoil saved from the old garden beds and additional soil purchased and delivered from a garden center.
After spending most of the day on the garden project, I took a walk around the yard to check our previous plantings.
The artichokes we transplanted into the garden last week are doing well and sprouting new growth.
This is one of eight flax plants we placed at the base of the water tank.
This is the mama turkey sitting on the nest that I posted a few days ago.
One of the white birch trees is already sprouting leaves!!
And the tulip, pictured in a previous post, has bloomed!
More to follow.
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