Garden Bed V.02!
 

As part of a way to erase ANY of my doings of my relationship with Emi, Emi has started to take apart the raised garden bed I built a couple of years ago. When in bloom, it looks pretty darn good. When people walked by, they always commented on both sides of the yard. (the bed was on one side of the side walk, the house and garden on the other...) Over the next few months, I'll be hauling this rather heavy building stones down to my parents. I'm building a new at their house. Funny thing is, it's gonna be right next to a path also!

I find gardening (as well as beating the crap out of people's yards aka yardwork) theraputic or something. There's something wonderful about creating a workspace, planting, watching it grow and to see if you can nurture it. And if the plants don't work out, then you try something else or plant it again!

13 bricks. My car can't hold many more cuz these things weigh quite a bit. I thought they were were 12 lbs but I can single curl a 12lb weight. These feel closer to 30. So while 13 have been transfered, I have 4x more to go or so.


Of all the plants I wanted kept from the old bed, Emi was kind enough to keep my black mondo grass and my blood grass. I didn't realize Blood Grass went dormant (ie; the grass dies and comes back) so I was pulling them out cuz I didn't think they rooted. But it turns out they did! These will be the border of the bed.

I did research years ago on how to do this. The way I'm following, I turn over ALL the grass and create a new stable foundation for the stones. BUT this bed will be different in that it has to be RAISED off the ground to be flush with the path. This is different than just doing it on level ground. The ground is NOT level so... This is the border.


Leveling the 1st corner. Notice that the bubble IS in the middle! lol! Seriously, I have to raise the ground a bit to be flush with the path. My parents will at a later dirt bring in new dirt and make the whole area level with the path. And yes, a rototiller WOULD help to an extent.


Tools of the trade. What does Thomas's wheelbarrow have to do with it? He was helping us move gravel earlier. You can see the location of the 1st corner WITH bricks. I am using the old grass to raise everything up.

The idea here was to break up the dirt a bit after digging the grass out. But in the end, I changed my mind. I started filling the raised border with the old grass clumps at this time. Then using a 10lb stamper to compact it a bit. The bricks, which will be 3 high, will help pack it down too.


Test corners. There are different ways to do corners. You can 45' them like this so it takes 3 bricks to make a corner. But what I decided on in the end is to do make the base a 90' angle. This actually made the 2nd layer of bricks set up better. Unfortunately, my battery was dying and I forgot to take pics.


Continue on the right side of the screen and I actually leveled it all out and have the base layer on 1 side good to go! The extra bricks, I built up so it's 3 high. Part of it is experimental too to see how I like it.


I'll have more next week since I'm hitting my parents again this weekend. Thomas gets to go trick o treating down there! :D

Looks like you have just started. Im sure it will look good when you are done :D

landscaping
 

looks great

You are a decent guy. I'd be more inclined to throw those bricks through her window.

Pretty awesome G

So I messed around with things a bit over the weekend. Due to my father's back being bad (from lifting septic tank lids; my back didn't hurt quite as bad when lifting them...), I'm having to do a lot of yardwork for him. The garden bed is my thang but moving gravel, digging out stuff, digging up stuff and moving rhodi bushes...

Last edition, you saw I was throwing the corner bricks at 45 degree angle, but I changed my mind. Due to the weird way the bricks line up, EVEN tho they are level, 3 are at 90 degrees and 1 is at 45 (back corner so people can't see it as easily). I worked the foundatin all weekend and with the exceptoin of 1 brick, I have the bottom layer set. So the next bricks, all I have to do is build up. It took about a half yard of dirt to JUST do the foundation. To fill it up, it'll take a yard or so. Anyway, here's how it looks now.

I'm only transporting about 13 bricks a time and well, that's several hundred pounds in the trunk so...

AGREE!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you making a flower bed or is it a cunningly disguised Cobra fort for your dio stories? Its looking good either way.