On Sunday and Monday we began building the raised garden beds along the walls. They will be for various flowers, veggies, and herbs.

We completed one, and almost all of a second. The other two will have to await a delivery from Lowe's for more timber and soil. As it was, to get at least one built, we made four trips carrying 8-foot beams, many blocks and bags of manure and soil, and other assorted hardware and tools.

The one completed bed is devoted to flowers, most of which were there before, but somewhat overgrown with weeds. Shelley did the re-planting while I built the wooden structures and filled them with dirt.

Much shopping, much work, much soreness (this time in the arms and upper body from lifting and moving long timbers from mitre saw to yard and back again).

Oh yeah: mitre saw FTW (for the win)! That thing dealt with the landscaping timbers in short order, every cut being at 28 degrees to match the angle of the wall join, and then to bevel join longer sections (rather than butt join).

So far, the results match the vision splendidly. It's relatively cheap to buy the wood for the raised beds. The dirt, however, doesn't come cheap. Nothing like buying dirt. At least it's not dirty dirt.




Wall unstuccoed, with garden area as inherited.




Wall stuccoed and raised bed #1 completed, with replanted flowers. (The wire hanging down will soon be hidden.) The final step will be stencilled paintings decorating the wall.