Here's what it looked like. Two compost bins (one rather worse for wear) and a big pile of dirt, with fenceposts. No real hurry on replacing the fence, unless we get a dog or something like that.
(January, 2010)
A couple of years ago, our neighbors put in a flower bed in that little strip of lawn between the sidewalk and the street. They dug up all the dirt that was there and replaced it with better soil and mulch. They were going to toss out the dirt they dug up, but we'd been tossing around the idea of a raised-bed garden, which would require dirt, so we told them to just put that extra dirt in a pile in our backyard up against the fence, next to our compost bins.
Time passed. When I'd do some digging or empty out a flower pot, I'd dump it there. I'd dump lawn trimmings, too. The dirt pile grew.
A year or two ago, Wendy and the opposite neighbor got on a tear, and knocked down the fence separating our two yards, the one with the dirt pile next to it. No big deal, the fence was about to fall down and we get along with them really well.
Here's what it looked like. Two compost bins (one rather worse for wear) and a big pile of dirt, with fenceposts. No real hurry on replacing the fence, unless we get a dog or something like that.
Oh. Suddenly, the fence is a priority. But there's that pile of dirt on the fence line that has to be moved first. Which means the raised beds are also a priority.
Here's where we're putting them. (Why do I keep saying 'we'? I'm the one doing all the manual labor...) It's between the driveways and is just a weed patch, but it gets plenty of full sun. It's also got a bit of a slope to it. Our house is on the left. It's about a foot or so higher than the neighbor's house on the right, and about two or three feet higher than the sidewalk. I measured, and there was enough room for four 4-foot-square raised beds. That dark spot towards the sidewalk is the water meter cover, which limits how close to the sidewalk I can get.
We decided to start with two beds, and add more later if we wanted. The sidewalk end gets more sun, and has less of a slope, which means less digging, so that's where I decided to put them. We're planning on growing edible stuff there, so we couldn't use treated landscape timbers. Instead, we used regular stud-grade 2x4s. Yeah, they'll rot eventually, but not for a few years, and I've got a couple of ideas for when that happens. Off to the store for 36 8-foot 2x4s. That's enough for two 4-foot boxes, each nine 2x4s high, stacked flat.
Ever tried to cut something into two exactly equal pieces? You can't. You especially can't do it 36 times in a row. So I made a jig to cut an 8-foot 2x4 into two 47-3/4 inch 2x4s, with a sliver left over.
I made it wide enough to cut three at a time. It went pretty quick. Slap'em down, make sure they were lined up, slice, flip'em over, line them up, slice again, then stack and repeat.
And presto! 72 47-3/4 inch 2x4s.
I didn't want the untreated wood resting directly on the ground. It'll rot eventually, but no sense in hurrying
things along. We had some 1x6 Hardiboard left over from when the siding on the house was replaced. I used that to make a base that the 2x4s can rest on.
Here's the first one. I used 3-inch deck screws on the 2x4s, and the Hardiboard is screwed in from the bottom as
well. This is just the base. It's the minimum that can hold together and still be light enough to move. Now for the fun part - digging the hole.
If only it were as easy as scrolling down in real life. Digging is a lot harder than it used to be. I used a board and a level to make sure it was flat. I didn't sweat the leveling too much because settling is inevitable, but it's within an inch.
It wasn't so much the digging as the sifting. The dirt there has lots of roots and stuff. I wanted to get all that out. I'd dump four or five shovels on the screen, sift it out, then do it again, and dump out the wheelbarrow when it was full. That took a LOT longer than just digging it out. Found lots of interesting stuff buried there - bottle caps, rocks, and a flattened oil can.
Here's the base all placed and leveled. I stapled a couple layers of cardboard to the bottom as a weed blocker.
The second hole dug, and the second base all placed and leveled. There are a couple more layers of 2x4s added to the first base, too.
Both boxes complete!
And filled with dirt. I'm going to put a layer of bark mulch on top. Next month we can start planting.
Unfortunately, I didn't come close to using up all the dirt in the backyard. I did make a good-sized dent in it,
and managed to get rid of the compost bins. I'll probably wind up spreading it out on the lawn or something. There are a couple of uneven spots in the front yard I can level out...
On to Part 2!