Pete and I have reached the midway point of our summer cutting garden project, the raised garden beds. Pete's parents generously allowed us to borrow the sunniest part of their field for our experiment. It was a fun weekend: our families generously pitched in and got dirty with us; the weather cooperated, albeit a bit windy and overcast at times; and execution went as planned. In hindsight, building six beds was quite ambitious. A family friend remarked, after hearing of our plans and seeing pictures, "this is no joke". Without skipping a beat, Pete's dad sarcastically responded "with Botha, nothing is a joke". What can I say? I dream big.

It starts with black gold: loam and compost mix.
8 cubic yards trucked in on Thursday morning from Martin's Farm.

No pics on the box-making process, but it was a straightforward process. We put two 2'x8'x12" and two 2'x4'x12" joined simply by butting them together. The beds were reinforced with 4"x4" posts in each corner.

Once the boxes were made, we had a long debate about placement.

My dad surveying the line-up.

The crew (including me) outlined the boxes, cut away the sod and tilled and leveled the land beneath.

Pete's dad removing sod.

Pete and the pitchfork.

Nathan (9) took turns on the pitchfork.

Me.

Always time for a laugh.

We used these babies to move soil to the beds.

The beds were mostly filled by Saturday evening.

After Easter brunch, we topped off the beds with more soil.

Leftover soil, but it will not be wasted.

Found in this the field.
Perhaps we could rehab and use on our future farm *wink*....

Finito!

What a weekend!
One day to gather and purchase materials.
Two and a half days of assembling, digging, tilling, leveling, shoveling, raking and more leveling.

Our next steps are to install drip irrigation and plant. It's a bit too cold to start planting most of the flowers except for the sweet peas and anemones.