Saturday, August 17, 2013

Gardener Bear

Well... today was a beary dirty day. We did some gardening and I was right there in the thick of it. But I have to say... some advice... when you are gardening, do NOT wear a white t-shirt... get a smock like Jerry has!

Anyhow... remember the wood shed covered in grape vines?? Yup, that's me in there somewhere...

Well, we hacked back the grapevine a bit, repaired the box at the bottom of it, added some good dirt to the bad dirt (and some compost) and planted kale, brussel sprouts and New Zealand spinach (far right). Now, an admission... the brussel sprouts somehow got mixed in with the Portuguese Kale so... we're not sure exactly which of those ones at the left are kale and which are brussel sprouts... heh-heh... oh well!

And... remember this sad excuse for a "pond and fountain"... well... after much grunting from Mama and encouragement from me...

It got heaved out of the ground. After emptying the black water bucket by bucket...   I made sure that I was safely out of the way for that! There was black water flying everywhere as Mama muttered under her breath at how deep this "pond" was!!

Now there are some sword ferns there... much better...

But the big project... is to make some raised beds. And for that we need soil...

Lots of soil!

And mushroom compost of course. 

Now... it's time to get started and build something.

Luckily, there were some old deck framing boards under the new deck (left behind by the previous owner)... In the interests of reducing, reusing and recycling (and saving money), we used those boards. The plan - make a bed that is 4 feet by 8 feet.

It's not a fancy raised bed... so we just cut up some 4x4's for corner posts (all different lengths because the ground slopes so much)....

But we had a level to make sure everything was OK... I was good at this part!

And after some more muttering, we had the form of a raised bed...

Looks pretty good... or as Mama would say... "Good enough!" That little bubble is more or less inside the middle part.

Now we just need to hammer some boards on the lower parts... I wasn't very good at this. That hammer is heavy!!

I wanted to help use the skil saw but Mama said "NO!" Power tools are NOT for little bears. Phooie... Some of the cuts were a bit tricky because we needed a 2x8 cut on a diagonal to fit the slanted ground side... but it all worked out in the end...

Ooops... out of room again - Mama says that will have to come in Part 2!

6 comments:

  1. We see you in the first photo! The garden shed looks wonderful; Jerry does recommend wearing a smock, but, at the same time, IF you do get dirty, then you always have a bubble bath to look forward to later, and you can get out your rubber ducky or bath toys and have fun too.

    The raised beds are a wonderful idea. It is getting harder for one or two of us in the family (and Ben says "Not me or Jerry, so you kan gess who...") to get down on knees to do all that gardening, so raised beds are a great idea.

    We can't wait to see part 2!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A bubble bath is a beary good idea! It would help to ease somebody's aching muscles... it's not just knees that give out... the back doesn't do so well either!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, and we do think it's a beary good idea that Sandy doesn't get to use the power saw; that makes us beary nervous. Best for little bears to watch from a safe distance!

    ReplyDelete
  4. A beary safe distance... that thing spits sawdust everywhere!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I got stuck in the washing machine once. I hate baths. They're horrid. I was burping bubbles for months.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh dear, that doesn't sound like fun! Maybe I'll just toss my t-shirt in and stand there and watch the water and clothes go round and round.

    ReplyDelete