Big Preppin'

Hey all...We have raised beds!!! 3 out of 5 thus far have been built. This was all free redwood and fir "doneage" lumber and although many of the boards had some warping, a little persuasion of support posts and a copious amount of nails straightened em right up and made for some very attractive frames. The craftsmanship got progressively better as I worked out the kinks along the way. We have also cleared yet more gravel creating a blank bed awaiting till

ing and amending just off the east side of the deck...which, after an access path, will give us an additional 80 sq. ft.

I totally believe in water free xeroscape yard design, especially in such dry climates as here, but words to the wise...don't ever plan on changing things once your rock is in place. This wasnt the nice little pea gravel you can just shovel around either, these were the golf ball size river rock that require one to hand pick it all. I can feel the ballooning of my blood vessels just thinking about such a pain stakingly involved job. But its done.

Another big step came in tearing out 100s sq. ft. of some notorious ground cover in a prime sunny location along the eastern fence line. Due to a good rain yesterday the soil was quite pliable and with the help of a white hot fury for progress and shovel, we managed to clear it all out in a couple hours.

To our dismay, the invasive ground cover concealed a rock laden soil, seemingly made that way by some maliciously minded landscaper of years past. There's a chance that its just the native soil, a good chance...but seeing as how we have another 400 sq. ft. of beds to till near by, I'm gonna pretend they were put there by evil hands. But as all unforseens lead to new ideas, we have decided that a fine hedgerow of hardy blackberry bushes will call this spot home. Perrenials rule! Plant em once, enjoy for years.

Next on the agenda is to obtain some 2-3 year old berry bushes and get them in the ground soon, build a couple more 20'x 4' raised beds, till up their footprint, order a mountain of compost to mix in all the beds, and get some early spring seeds started indoors. Yee-Haw!