Bed Construction

I came home from a girls weekend to find a neat stack of cedar 2x6s cut to 4 foot lengths and a 2x2 sitting next to it, ready to be cut to 12 inch lengths for the bed corners. 

Construction was a a tad sketchy, simply due to the lack of a level spot in our backyard to work on. But we made it work, using the first completed box as a staging area for the second.

We moved them to the garden area last night, just as the sun was setting.

My project for tonight, in the 65 degree weather (!!) I hope to figure out their positions and get the boxes leveled so I can fill them and put some seeds in the ground.

You'll notice we propped up the fence. This post is completed rotted through and can't support itself. Another post behind the rhodie is leaning and also got some support.

I'm going to attempt to follow the square foot gardening guidelines for filling my beds: 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost. However, the guidelines suggest only 6 inch deep beds, so HALF of what these guys are.  I probably will only fill them 8-10 inches deep in order to keep costs down. I guess that if I want to expand in the future, I could always split one of the beds into two 4'x4'x6" beds for shallow rooted veggies, and keep the other one a full 12" bed for the deeper stuff.

My tomato seeds all sprouted over the weekend. The peppers should soon follow. Only one romaine seed is up; looks like it's time to toss those seeds. Maybe I'll scatter them over a couple of squares in the bed once they get filled as a test.