[Apparently these pictures are stretched in Internet Explorer, at least IE8. This seems to be an Internet Explorer issue only- Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox render the pages as expected. I’ll see if I can find a work around; until then, clicking on the pics should clear things up.– unknown dog]
We are building raised bed gardens this year. Our [previous effort] on Gaines Street was very successful by our reckoning. With plenty of room, we are upping the ante.
We are planning two raised beds with 4′ x 8′ interiors. The yard slopes significantly, so I’m digging out the high side gravel footing to keep things level. Here’s the site work crew getting started:
We are dry stacking concrete block and using some super-dooper adhesive to help hold things together. We have been here a little less than a year and we have already had several bumper crops of rocks in the backyard- they are multiplying faster than the rabbits that live in our “coyote woods”.
All the baby rocks go inside the concrete block to fill the voids and add some mass. Here Graydon is figuring out which lumps are rocks and which are just dirt clods:
Despite appearances, she is not whacking her bunny with a mallet:
Our raised beds will be 4′ x 8′ on the inside and two courses of concrete block high. I picked this dimension for a few reasons:
- the interior dimension works out evenly with standard 8x8x16 block
- the interior size is also the size of a standard sheet of plywood, providing an easy guide to keep my blocks lined up
- the 1′ x 1′ plots should be easily reachable from the sides
- making the beds 2 courses high with a cap will put the top of the bed walls at a comfortable sitting height.
One down and the second one started. We’ll paint the concrete block this week and probably put a nice looking cap on the top in the fall:
