Dirty Work

Picked up two more truck loads of dirt for the raised bed today. We shovelled most in and spread some of the remainder in some of the low places in the yard. It looks good. We did end up digging out out some of the dirt we put in the other week so we could attach 2x4s in a couple spots where the wood was bowing in or out. We should have done that before we put the dirt in, but I think we were in denial and thought perhaps it would magically fix itself. If you're keeping track, the wood and screws cost $101, the stain about $10, and the dirt $27 per truck load.

Attack of the Spider Mites

All three of my mint plants are infested with spider mites. Surprisingly, they don't seem to have spread to the other plants, but they LOVE the mint plants. Armed with some scotch tape, I tried a one-on-one attack this evening. They stick to the tape like a charm, but even with reasonably small plants it turned pretty time-consuming. I'm certain I didn't manage to spot them all either. The little green ones blend right into the leaves and hide in the crooks of the stem. I really don't want to use a commercial bug spray, so I'm remaining optimistic that I can tamp down the infestation by hand, at least on the mint julep. The other mint plant I think might be too far gone and the chocolate mint is such a mess they're hard to spot.

What a project...

After hauling the pre-built sides individually out to the build site, we decided there was no way we'd be able to pick up the fully constructed box. So instead we set sides in the ground one at a time. It's not perfect, but turned out better than my lowered expectations.

This photo is Eric getting ready to attach the sides together. You can see where some of the wood has bowed already and isn't laying flush. We need to get that fixed still.

After this photo was taken we hauled in two pickup truck loads of dirt and shoveled it in. We're going to need a third for sure, but we ran out of time before the dump closed.

Eric just peered over my shoulder as I'm writing this and said "I'd better be getting a glowing review." He absolutely should. This was a lot of work. A lot of digging and shoveling and picking up the sides and putting them back down as we tried to dig a straight trench, a deep enough hole for the posts, and get the whole thing level on our very not level lawn. After working until 4:30 p.m. without a lunch break we devoured some sandwiches and ice cream at Sonic. I don't think we've undertaken a home-related project yet that hasn't taken at minimum twice as long as we expected. I hate to even put a multiple on this one. It's big. As I say every time though, we could probably do the second one a lot faster.

Drilling and Staining

Today we got the two 8-foot end pieces together. Each consists of two 8x10 boards screwed onto a post. In the picture they are upside-down serving as a platform for the remaining boards, which I put a second layer of stain on tonight. We moved into the garage for warmth and a flat floor. It had the bonus of also being out of the leaves and such that kept blowing and sticking to the stained boards. On the downside, I inhaled a lot of stain fumes.

Next: Screwing together the 16-foot sides and attaching it all to form a box.

More Digging

We got the rest of the 8x16 plot dug out today. We lugged all the grass we dug up in chunks over to another part of the yard that we've had trouble getting grass to grow in. I also got one coat of stain on the 12 boards. And I learned that although they're sold as 8-foot-long boards, that is actually a rough numbers. The ranged from 8/16 to 12/16 too long. Rather than saw them all, I figured out an arrangement that will made the sides equal, although the boards won't align precisely in the middle. Tomorrow if the weather holds up, I'm hoping to get the second coat of stain on. Then we need to cut the corner posts, screw the boards on to make the box, and get it set in the ground. Getting it level I think will be a challenge, but it can't be as physically demanding as all the digging. Then hopefully we can pick up a couple truckloads of the dirt/compost/fine mulch mixture that the landfill sells. We've never bought it before so I'm just hoping it will be good for gardening. We'd go broke buying bags of soil from the home improvement store.

I'm going to have to change the name of the blog

Eric and I commenced installing a raised garden bed today. It is, of course in the front corner of the lot (the only place that gets full sun). Here's a zoomed out photo showing the composter on the left, the greenhouse on the right, and Eric toiling away in the middle (the post is a rain gauge). We opted for untreated wood knowing it won't last forever, but I just wasn't convinced after reading about treated wood that I wanted to risk anything leeching into my vegetables (even with the change from CCA to ACQ, which is what Lowes carries). We bought 8-foot long 2x10 boards. We figure we're going to have to sink them into the ground a bit so we bought enough boards to do a double level. More work tomorrow!

The Greenhouse

Eric bought me a greenhouse for Christmas. I was slack on blogging over the winter, so I hadn't posted a picture yet. Here it is. It warms up pretty good in there during the day. It doesn't maintain an above-freezing temperature when it drops below 32 degrees at night though. I suspect it helps some, but the plants still freeze. As for performance in warmer weather, there is unfortunately no ventilation other than opening the door, so it gets pretty humid in there.