Tag: Raised garden beds

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Barbie's garden Design Do it yourself Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

back-breaking back garden project

I have finally completed the hard landscaping of my back garden. It has been a gruelling weekend with great weather to help me complete the job! I don’t know where the energy came from, but I was literally in the back garden from sun up to sun down. I think the photos say it all! I was constantly being “assessed” by the chicken brigade! But I did get the final nod by Buffy and the girls!

I am so glad this part of the job is finished. I have a few ideas on the design, but that you will have to wait for in the next installment.

Happy gardening xxx

[one_half]The levelling begins![/one_half]

[one_half_last]The chickens get into everything![/one_half_last]

[one_half]Adding the soil now![/one_half]

[one_half_last]Need a few thousand bags of compost[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Now for the next layer![/one_half]

[one_half_last]Getting tired now, but not giving up![/one_half_last]

[one_half]Job finished and just before the sun set[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Inspection team gives stamp of approval![/one_half_last]

Categories
Barbie's garden Design Do it yourself Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Finished the bed building

It has been back-breaking business, but I have finally finished building the raised beds for the back garden this weekend. The chickens enjoyed the company and the new play area! I have filled the first bed with all the good and rich organic material. I have a friend that has horses and had straw bales for me! It is out-of-season, so they were more pricey than normal. But they are the best “brown” organic material to get hold of and they make for a neat covering.

Hannes and I played around with light painting so we could add an unusual photo as well for you!

Now I can concentrate on composting! I have learnt alot about this in my Organic Gardening Course I’ve been doing, so my next post will be on what I have learnt so far!

Happy gardening xxx

[one_half]3 beds all in a row![/one_half]

[one_half_last]Nightcrawlers![/one_half_last]

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Barbie's garden Do it yourself Gardening Home page features

Building my raised bed garden

I finally had a burst of energy this week and a bee in my bonnet to get my back garden started. It looks like we will not start with the backyard fencing until next year, so my interest turned to the designing of my back garden raised bed area. I had all my measurements  and my wooden slat sizes sketched out and I went to the Pole Yard to buy my 16 slats and the 76 x 76 wood for the legs. Grabbing my bright orange overall – yes, I have my own one – I got straight to work!! I have to say here that it was the inspiring Tanya Visser from The Gardener Magazine DVD series that got me motivated to build this on my own. Thanks Tanya!! Girl Power!!

I started with one raised bed to get the feel of size and effort! It took me nearly three hours to assemble and place it in the garden! I will be building another two. Well, the photos speak for themselves and all I can say is that I did it all by myself – with a bit of coaching from my hubby!

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Whew! Ok, so I have now finished the one side. I still need to make another side and then combine the two sides together. This is where I need to get my hubby involved (well, he is taking the photo’s of me too, by the way!). It is quite a big box at 1.5m x 1.5m. Check how big it is!

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The legs were a bit too long, so I chopped them down by half so I did not have to dig such big holes – whew! The ground is not quite level so I had to make sure the sides were all horizontal. The chickens love it when I bring out the shovel! They had a ball. I was finished!

But a job well done! I know that I can cope and that my vision of building 2 more is not so daunting!

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Now, for the next stage of building the soil that needs to go into these raised beds. My soil is very clayey, so I have to create my own rich, composted soil. I have been researching Sheet Mulching so I will be sharing with you my next task of creating this lovely soil from scratch. But that will be the next blog post.

Happy gardening
xxx