dirt under my fingernails

Yesterday my wonderful hubby and father-in-law spent many hours completing these awesome raised beds for our new vegetable garden. Please note the beautiful moon rising in the background of the "finished" photo!  As you may recall, last weekend they (and some neighbors) spent the weekend smashing up the concrete pad where we used to have a shed, and then over the course of the week, hauled the concrete away, making room for these beauties.

We used 2x12 pine boards, after agonizing about what to use.  Everything I read said that pressure treated lumber or treated railroad ties leach chemicals into the garden...eww. So even though untreated wood will rot, and we'll have to replace it sooner or later, hopefully it will be later! We installed a layer of hardware cloth (metal mesh) on the bottom due to our vole issues, lined the insides with plastic, and used some Thompson's wood sealer (like you would put on a deck to resist rain). 

The dirt was all purchased in bags, mostly due to ease of getting it to where we were putting it in the back of the yard...Papa's pickup could make it back there but not a dump-truck. And hubby thought it money well spent not to have to lug umpteen full wheelbarrows up the driveway hill to the backyard.  I ended up going with a mix of about 1/2-2/3 topsoil mixed with locally produced bagged compost (because I don't have any home-made) and some peat-moss. We'll see how it does.

I'm thinking of starting a separate page or separate blog for the garden, so I don't bore most of you with all the details, but so I can keep track of how things go this year...what I plant, how they do, etc.  I'll keep you "posted"!