We did it. We finally have raised garden beds. Now that we’ve actually built these suckers neither of us can figure out why it took us so long to just do it in the first place. Granted though, I am a firm believer that things will happen when they are supposed to, and I think these garden beds fit into that. Had we built them three years ago when we first thought about it they would have been in a different location in the yard, which wouldn’t have received as much sun or been as good for growing as the place we carefully picked out now. So really, all the hurdles (and let’s face it, a certain amount of procrastination) may have paid off. At least that’s what I’m telling myself!

I actually didn’t plan on doing it this year either, but J showed up after work one day with a truckload of 2×10 rough cedar. He’s pretty awesome like that.

We cut the boards to size and made them into 3×6 foot raised beds. I had originally been thinking of doing 4×8 and I am so glad I didn’t. 3 feet is plenty wide enough. Then I disassembled the fencing we had up, because the space wasn’t large enough, and we roughly laid them out.

Then because we’re both perfectionists we shuffled each bed around until they were all a measured 3 feet apart in each direction.

It would have been perfect, except there’s a huge bump in the yard so the one bed ended up sitting all wonky. I wanted to say is was sitting all akimbo, because akimbo is an awesome word, but apparently akimbo refers specifically to limbs and raised garden beds do not have limbs. Oh well.

Wait, does that “oh well” mean I’m not actually a perfectionist? Hmmm….

Suki spent most of the day digging huge holes in the yard.

Except during the hottest part of the day, when she retired to the shade with her bowl of water to watch the crazy humans keep working.

She wandered out to help move the 4 yards of dirt that was delivered though. This picture kind of makes it seem like we unloaded the dirt from the trunk of the car. That’s kind of funny, so let’s pretend that we did.

“Helping”

It’s so cute, if I sit down Suki will come over and sit between my knees. She also does this with J, and one time she did it to a stranger while we were hiking. She saw him sitting on a rock, sauntered right over, and plunked herself down between his feet. Sometimes she’ll look back over her shoulder and hit ya with that Schipperke Smile.

We expanded the fence out a bit beyond the garden beds, giving lots of extra room for herbs, maneuvering the lawn mower, for Suki to roam around patrolling her new borders… Maybe we’ll put a row of raspberry canes along the fence. Y’know, eventually. I’m loving having an area that I can turn Suki loose in without having to watch her like a hawk.

Well except to keep her from excavating the garden beds I guess.

Oh, another thing we did. Remember that ugly, half-rotten woodpile that’s been sitting here since before we moved in? The one I’ve complained about? We finally got rid of it. Half of it was actually so rotted we just mulched it under the trees near the house.

Aw yeah, we’re rocking the spring cleanup this year. We still have to decide what to do with the railway ties the wood was sitting on, which you can kind of see in the background.

Now I just need to decide on what I’m planting…

(Oh and pro-tip, Rubbermaid totes are totes awesome for hauling dirt and plants around, but if you’re a perfectionist, y’know like me, you should move them out of the frame when taking a picture)