Rub Some Dirt in It

Rub Some Dirt in It

Well, you know I am up to something when the driveway/garage looks like this:

We finally got the dirt in for the raised beds! I am the proud new owner of two cubic yards of top soil. It is a lot more than what it sounds like.
The thing about top soil in our area is that it is very sandy. That means plants sometimes need a bit more nutrients than is readily available. This is where compost comes in... but my compost pile is still tiny. So I went and bought 26 bags of compost. That's right, 26. I think the checkout lady's eyes almost popped out of her head. Thank goodness DH (dear husband) was there to put up with my craziness, and we loaded all the bags in the trunks of our two cars. Each bag being 40lb, that is a lot of weight and we ended up driving home super slow with our flashers on. Good thing it was only 2 miles away.

One thing about the top soil and compost is that it needs to be screened or filtered. Think of a giant sieve to take out all the rocks and sticks. So here is a picture of the screen I built which just fits over the wheelbarrow. That way, as we scoop the dirt into the wheelbarrow, we can sift it through the screen and dump the pebbles and sticks.I have to admit the top soil is much sandier than I was expecting, so the good news is there weren't as many obstructions as I was expecting.

So our dirt now has the bulk (top soil), and the nutrients (compost), but now it needs the right "fluffy" structure. That is where the vermiculite comes in. You know that fluffy white stuff in potting mixes you get? Yep, that's vermiculite or perlite. They help keep the soil light and airy so it doesn't get too packed down.

Mixing all that together, add in a touch of fertilizer, lime, and epsom salts and you have some quality garden soil. About 40 wheelbarrow loads later, and we have the raised beds filled and ready for planting! Well, almost. Don't worry, Eva was there supervising our every move

Now that the raised beds are complete, I had to work on some garden tools that I need this season as well!
Here are some squash trellises I built following (mostly) these directions here.

I also bought a hose-hanger with a spigot. Before, in order to get to the faucet and turn on the hose you had to step on random plants (daylillies?) clogging up the garden bed. Now, a short hose brings the water to the edge of the garden bed where the new spigot is connected to manage the water flow. I can hang the long hose here, so I don't have to trample plants (even though they are probably mostly weeds).

I love installing things that make life just a little bit easier!

Finally! Thanks to some seriously fantastic hard work from DH, we were able to complete the raised beds, and all the plant structures. Here they are in all their glory!

This "tee-pee" structure is for the acorn squash:







This one is pretty cool... if you look closely you can see the wire arching over between the beds. This is what the cucumber will climb up (hopefully).

And here (below) are the start of the tomato trellises. You see those long silver poles in the picture to the right? As soon as I get them cut (and something else to hold down the black plastic) they will slide down over the rebar that we pounded in. I promise there will be more details once I get the tomatoes planted.






Now just to get around to actually planting the stuff!