beds 7,8 and 9 are in - 3 more to go

progress continues on my raised beds. the picture on the left shows beds 7,8,9 ready for action. as mentioned before, i have space for 12 beds so 3 more to go and the bed project is ready for prime time.

my current daily run rate, (when i can actually get an entire day dedicated to the project) cranks out a terrace, builds the trex walls, attaches the chicken wire bottom, placing and leveling the bed and starts filling the bed with topsoil.


thank goodness for daylight savings time, as i now have about 3 hours of work time (m-f after work) before it gets dark. i am actually making decent progress on a daily basis - weekends arent the only time i can get work done. best estimates will have the rest of the beds done by the end of march.

the picture on the right gives an idea of the terracing needed to level out an average bed. its tough to see, but next to the fence is my grandpa's pitchfork. leveling that end to the same height as the front end (identified by the shovel) is about 8 inches. not a ton of dirt is moved - but enough to make for a decent amount of shovel work.

in some cases, i use a rototiller to break up the soil on the pitchfork end. the area also has an abundance of roots from the manzanita that used to call this area home - and the rototiller does an admirable job of blasting through those.

if you look real close, you can see the snap lines i use to keep the new beds aligned with each other.