Let the Garden Begin! Part I

As most of you know, I grew up on a farm in north-central Oklahoma.  My Great-Grandfather staked his claim to the land in the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893 and my parents continue to live and farm there.  My farm-life included much gardening and while I'll never be a gardener of the caliber (or quantity) of my parents I do seem to seek out my own little plots.  In Brent and I's first apartment, we had an early attempt at a community garden that was a mess.  Then, when we moved to a little rent house we tried again with only slightly more success and some OK squash and some very yucky chard.  Here, we've mostly focused on the front bed in our first 18 months along with a few pots and a small tree out back.  Saturday, that all changed.

I have been longing for a small vegetable garden in a raised bed in a percolating lazy sort of fashion for the some time. Partially for my own enjoyment and partially to share with my kiddos the special adventure. I've brainstormed with my agronomist father and pondered with Chrissie, Tracie, Heather, Brent and my Mom.  At last week's Wii/Crop party Tracie mentioned that the Pioneer Woman had a raised bed template.  Knowing the style of that blog I knew there would be millions of pictures and it might possibly be doable by our skill level. I started to consider it a bit more seriously and discuss with my parents and friend Heather who is starting a gardening blog.  (As an aside, I should note that my husband is brilliant with a PhD in Neuroscience and I have a few nice degrees too, but neither of us really builds things, ever).  My husband is, however, strangely always up for challenges and very big on getting me what I want even in exchange for his own misery (apparently).  I love him dearly for it:)

After a LOT of encouraging words from my mom and some more dilly dallying by me, including tossing the instructions in the air and pondering quitting many times (note, my comrades were all in, I was the issue as I admit, I doubted us).  Off my Mom and I went to the hardware store with B and dutifully bought the supplies found in the tutorial.... but of course I couldn't just make it exactly as written.

Nope, I wanted it just a bit bigger.  Mind you, for one's first building project it is possible that one should start with something small and follow the instructions.  We're more of the we know we won't do this again so let's go big while we have momentum sort of people though so we forged ahead.  For various reasons, I settled on 16 x 4 x 1.  So, we needed just a few more boards than in the tutorial and a way to attach them in the middle.  We also bought weedblock as we're very suspicious of the building this on grass with no barrier.

From there, we mostly followed along the tutorial with a few caveats.  As we doubled the length we had to join the middle.  We tried drilling screws at an angle, but ultimately my Mom went back to the store and they recommended these "healers"-- sort of a plate with lots of screwy looking prongs.   We used these to join the long sides and then also drilled them to a stake so we used 16 stakes rather than the 10 in the tutorial.  We also put our weedblock material down first in a double layer so it was staked in as well. Finally, we didn't worry quite as much about the leveling bit as she did.  With our longer sides and topography it just was a little unrealistic and we're relatively sure the plants won't care if it is slightly off of level.   I think we ended up using just shy of 100 screws all of which had to have pre-drilled pilot holes and some and counter sink preparations, etc...  About 8 hours from the time I decided to do it --- with many breaks--- we had a lovely box all ready for dirt!  Believe it or not some dirt arrived the very next day so look for Part II coming shortly.

Meanwhile, I owe some thank yous to all those that made my dream happen. B helped drill and carried supplies in his new Home Depot carpentry apron (more on this later).  M supervised and pulled up lots of that bothersome grass for us.  My Mom was a HUGE help starting with helping us believe it could be done through shopping, watching the kids, finding the healers, hauling the lumber in her Jeep and helping us move the long sides around as needed.  There is a rather extensive slide show below for your enjoyment and I refer you to the tutorial for the specifics on roughly what we did.

I am flabbergasted that we got this done and so quickly.  Brent was so wonderful about it.  He just kept trying things, making things work and plugging right along despite many changes and challenges. I am certain this wasn't how he hoped to spend his Saturday, but it meant a lot to me and I know that is why he did it.  Now, its time to dream up a garden plan and look ahead to the fun that is to come!

Total Materials cost: approximately $135 -- we already owned the drill, measuring tape and pencil, but bought everything else.

Challenges - finding a spot (we went through three), wishing for a longer-lasting batter, a big splinter under my fingernail, some
of the stakes split as our bit wasn't long enough to always drill the pilot holes all the way through.  Lots of lessons learned and not too
bad for a very new and different project for us!