The goal this year was to convert the garden to tall, raised beds to minimize animal damage to the crops. Another advantage will be less bending and easier weed control. This has been a larger project than I originally imagined and began a month ago with the acquisition and planting of six raised planters and the installation of a new watering system.

Now I am constructing and installing steel beds that I purchased on Amazon. Thirteen in total. I will keep two of the new wooden beds that were installed in October of 2019.

May 12. I went out and finished tightening the screws on the bed for the zucchini, and I moved it out into the garden. I ripped out the boards from the south end of the first bed near the fire pit so that I could position the zucchini bed. I went to water the raised planters and the peas and saw that what looked like the spigot had a large leak. I thought that maybe the hose connection might not have been tightened sufficiently. However, upon closer examination, I discovered that the new hose had developed a massive leak. It had hardly been used. I finished watering, turned it off, went into the house, and started a ticket with Amazon. I found three bad reviews with the same problem. They will replace the hose, and I will send the old one back. (That will be interesting as it will be impossible to drain completely.) I hope they all don’t start leaking.

May 14. Went to work on tomato bed. Removing plastic takes at least an hour. Building is an hour or so. I fabbed the pieces at the table then assembled on the lower deck.

May 15. I talked to RT’s son Noah. RT is undergoing treatment for cancer and Noah will be doing the lawncutting and other work. He will be able to come on Monday, the 19th to fill the beds with soil. I called Down-to-Earth landscaping in Barrington and ordered 6 yards of Garden Mix which is 50% compost and 50% topsoil. The bill, with delivery and tax was $326.

May 16.  I filled up the yard waste bin with the trimmings from the spruce and the pile over the fire pit, and then took it to the curb. I unpacked the next two bins and knelt down and gave thanks when I realized they were not coated with plastic film. This design also uses wing nuts, which should make assembly easier. A queen yellow-jacket was surveying the area around the deck, but she didn’t sit still long enough for me to dispatch her with spray. I will get her. I continued c building until almost 5:00. I got one bed together and will tighten the screws in the morning.

May 17, The Ryobi impact driver worked well for tightening the screws. However, installing the four braces was a real pain, and that took well over half an hour. I finally got everything tightened and braced and moved the bed to the garden area. I am working on removing the old wooden beds and knocking out a few more pieces. Then I removed the wire fencing from the back half of the second bed and pulled out the posts. That took some effort. I removed a deciduous tree sprouting up in the blackberries. That took me to about 11:30, and I sat on the deck with some iced tea to rest a bit. The soil was delivered to my driveway mid-afternoon. It doesn’t look like as much as I expected. I hope we have enough.

I am now going to take about 15 minutes to see if I can figure out when the original raised beds were installed. They were present in the 1988 film “Catch a Wave” of Kevin and Wendy. That makes them at least 37 years old! Likely I installed them the year after we moved in in 1987. I will say that they are 38 years old. They served me well. I built another bed, so the two 3X8 beds with rounded ends are done.

I rested a little and then went to work on the 3X8 rectangular beds. There have been the easiest to build so far, even though they are the largest. I got the first one done in less than two hours. I finished around 7:00. and will do the last two tomorrow.

May 18. I was on for streaming mass on Sunday, so I started working early afternoon. I am panicking as I was running out of time since the bins and garden area need to be prepped by tomorrow. I finished ripping out the old raised beds.

I tried to add more wood to the five-year old wooden beds, but the blocks had shifted and things didn’t fit well. I will likely need to reconstruct those beds. I’ll build wooden angles to secure the corners and dispense with the grooved cinder blocks. They moved around way too much. I’ll fill those last.

I unpacked the last two raised beds and I pre-fabbed the end pieces. I worked until about 11:00 and was exhausetd.