My Mother's Day present

When asked what I wanted to recieve for Mother's Day, I told Dean that I really wanted a garden. I built a garden at my previous home, but it has been 6 long years since the move and I've missed it. I don't know exactly why I hadn't gone about starting up one when I moved into my new house. I discovered early on that the backyard is extremely difficult to do anything with. It gives the appearance of a nice, blank slate, but there is evil lurking beneath the surface. Like the worst soil ever known to man. Top that off with a steep slope on one side, a very rough and uneven surface with sloppy grading, and icky grass that is needle thin and lifeless. The backyard is the bane of my existance. I think that after all of the time and energy I put into creating a landscape from scratch at the old place, I just ran out of steam.

Well, after aquiring a very handy husband and taking a break from major landscape renovation, it was time. Not only to suit my needs, but the kids need to grow up knowing how to garden and how to take care of a landscape. Since the ground itself is either riddled with old tree roots or sprinkler system pipes, the only direction to go was above ground.

I looked at the options for materials, and settled on some pine beams that were for sale on Craig's List. The timber is from the city tree removal program (either condemned trees or beetle-kill) and a guy milled them into 4x6 beams. We purchased sixteen 4x6x12 beams and Dean constructed 3 different beds, each measuring 4x12. The beds are graduated in height, to accomodate different crops. We will have to amend and rotate the soil around at the beginning of each season since we won't rotate the crops. My dad helped us fill the beds with garden soil (about 4 cubic yards worth). The bulk of the work was accomplished just this past Saturday. Dean had completed most of the construction over the past 3 weeks (a little here, a little there), and we were finally ready to fill and plant last weekend.

Dean had to rent a beam saw in order to cut the beams to size

Dean lapped the corners for the frame and mitered the top level. We also decided to use 10" & 8" screws so that we would be able to disassemble them in the future, if we needed to.

The kids 'helping' unload one of many wheelbarrow loads

Grandpa took a break to give the kids a ride

It was a fun afternoon!