We started the spring cleaning work in the yard this past week. It has been nice a couple days in between the rain, and since yard debris was this week, I just had to get the cans full before it was picked up on Friday. There are a lot of weeds and unfortunately I didn't think to take before pictures.
I weeded the front yard Wednesday night after I got home from picking Sam up from Sarah's; it was such a nice night. I got the raised bed with the day lilies we planted last fall and the strip next to the driveway weeded by the time Aimee got home. Sam was having such a fun time initially helping me with putting weeds in the bucket and then digging in the raised bed; putting the dirt in his dump truck and dumping it out again. There is a lot of open space in that bed so I just had to tell him to not cover the green plants and he was careful to not hurt the lilies.I probably got more than half of the first yard debris can filled with all those weeds; they had gotten kinda thick, but not as thick as in the backyard, in garden area.
The garden area was a virtual jungle, of weed proportions. Aimee help me weed the area around the gravel pad I had started last fall for the the second raised garden bed. We weeded until it got dark and the flood lights came on back there. We must have filled the rest of the first and most of the second yard debris can with all the weeds. That corner of the yard looks pretty good now.
This weekend I even started building the second raised bed. I put together the first of the three 2x6 boxes that get stacked up to create the bed and had the wood for the other two cut before we went in to get Sam to bed last night. I put the second level together this morning and figured out that I could use my pocket hole jig to drill holes so I could attach the two levels together. I had used a scrap of 2x6 at 3 places on each side of the first raised bed and it was kinda clompy to put the plastic liner in. So this will work much better.
It started raining today, right on queue with the weather predictions that the rain would start around 12 noon (I think it was actually like 11:45am). I got the first screws in the 3rd level when it started raining. I was trying to find my ratchet straps to tame the boards that were cupping the wrong way so I could get a tight joint when it started, so I grabbed all the tools and quickly got them under the eves of the house, cleaned up and got everything in the garage. I will have to finish it this weekend when it is supposed to be nice again; unless I can find a good hour of no rain to get that last level screwed together, the pocket holes drilled and then secure that last level.
Once I can get that last level screwed in, I can put the plastic liner around the inside of the box to keep the dirt from touching the wood. Then there is just filling it with dirt and planting the remaining tomatoes, pumpkin, and zucchini to finish out what we have planned for this year's garden. Aimee has already planted lettuce, broccoli, one heirloom tomato, carrots, peas, beans, and onions in the first box. I put two bags of fresh organic dirt in that bed and mixed it into the garden compost and soil that didn't do so well last year. Hopefully this amendment will allow the garden to do better this year. I have more of that dirt to add to the second box so hopefully they will both have good harvests.
Oh, and I figured out that the ratchet straps were in the car Aimee drives, so I will have to get those out in case the weather clears this week.
1 comment:
I can tell where you cleaned out the weeds; looks really good. You build such good looking bed boxes for your plants. If I was still into doing a bigger garden, that's what I would do! Or what I'd want done! All your pictures look good with continual progress of what you're doing.
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