What you see here is what the raised bed looks like after the wood frame is removed. To the right, behind the block of soil, is another raised bed, with the wood frame intact.
The raised beds here were piled first with brush, then with compost. Compost from our compost bins, and a bag of manure, was added every year, for about the last six years. The resulting block of rich soil will be set aside when the new metal raised bed frame is constructed in the same spot. The bottom of the new raised bed will receive the old wood that was it’s frame, garden waste, branches, leaves, ash logs, dead plants, etc. and then the rich soil from the old raised bed will go on the top, along with more home compost and another bag of manure.
If we need more soil, which we might, the new beds are much larger, then we will buy a load of garden soil to be delivered by truck to our property. That is the plan.
Attila is a happy as a clam. He has finished moving all the shelving into the new pantry, and he has finished installing the new ceiling lights and the light switch. If that wasn’t enough to make him happy, a day of mild sunny weather arrived today. That means Attila is out in the his garden! He is setting up the rain barrel, and beginning to dismantle one of the three pine raised beds. The pine has rotted, and the bed has to be replaced with a brand new galvanized steel raised bed.
The wonderful thing is, Attila said to me this morning, “I want to work outside today, I think I’ve earned it.” He regards working outside as a reward. This works for us on so many levels. I feel fortunate that Attila regards his garden as a source of fun and recreation. I freely admit that I do not regard gardening in this way. I wonder sometimes if my lack of enthusiasm for spending time gardening results from spending many years during my youth, toiling on the farm, days, weeks, spent tying grapes, picking grapes, weeding and hoeing strawberries, picking strawberries, hard hard work, and monotonous. That was on our farm, I also worked as a summer job on other farms, picking cherries, peaches, strawberries, etc. More hard work.
The pantry is not quite finished. It still needs a door, and a shelf above the chest freezer. Those projects can be tackled on cold rainy days, and I am pretty sure spring has more of those in store for us.
It was warm enough today to sit on the back porch and bask in the sunshine. That feels so good!
Worldly
Weather
11°C
Date: 7:00 PM EDT Sunday 13 April 2025
Condition: Mainly Sunny
Pressure: 101.4 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 10.6°C
Dew point: 0.6°C
Humidity: 50%
Wind: SW 15 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.”
Heda Bejar
1931 – 2014
Attila has such a green thumb, I’ll bet those raised beds will be amazing producers! Have you decided yet what all you’ll be planting?
We had a wonderful day over here, too. We surpassed all forecasts and hit 18C/65F today! We spent some time outside with the dogs, and Skye was so energetic that she started squeaking her frisbee ring and tried to jump around a little. That got Loki so excited that he started to run around, so we had to shut things down really fast before Skye could injure herself.
I think we have 2 cool days coming up, so that will ease things a little, hopefully.
Teri, Attila likes to plant a real variety of vegetables. Our annually grown vegetables are beans, peas, beets, spinach, lettuce, lovage, rhubarb, cabbage, tomatoes, squash, peppers, kohlrabi, zuchinni, and cucumbers. There will be lots of other plants as well, he likes to experiment, so I will have to wait and see what comes in.
Wow 18C, wonderful. The dogs sound like they are really enjoying spring!
It is very cool today, and very windy, good day for drying clothes out on the line.