I'm making progress and gardens

chairtop gardens. planted with snap peas and mesculin mix



the 2'x18" garden on the chairs



I got tired of waiting for my son to visit to build my boxes so I started with HD kits.

Mel's mix in waiting


the first box


box 1 and almost 2 only 4 more to go. all will be tabletops when I get the blocks unloaded from the truck


some garlic planted 2 weeks ago from cloves sprouting in the fridge


started some broccoli, borrage, sage, thyme and dill today


mesculin has spouted planted 2 weeks ago in chair top gardens


tomorrow I will finish box #2 and start another.

Kay

Woohoo! So exciting. Those look wonderful. What made you decide on concrete block for your TTs? I am hope to build some myself and am thinking about various ways of supporting them.

limited carpenter skills and nobody to help me. I can unload block and have a dolly to help get to the back yard. And can lift the beds to 2 block height by myself.

Kay

I hear you. I'm probably going to have to face the power tools this year. Hopefully not cut off anything too important....

I learned to use a battery powered trim saw today to cut the plywood support under the hardware cloth. btw, I'm a Fairfax City girl myself. Retired to NC

Good on you! I'm a transplant, but it's an interesting place, for sure.

I am impatiently waiting for my photos to upload so I can show everyone the mess I'm facing in my backyard. Never thought I'd be showing that off!

I saw something at Lowes today that I may copy. One of their displays had blocks stacked 2 high and landscape timbers resting in the block openings. Made it look like a rustic log fence. I'm going to investigate deck timbers and see if I can get 10' ones. That way I can rest 2 4x4 boxes on top of the timbers and not the block. I may need to go to Lowes tomorrow and take a picture so I can contemplate the look. Really dressed up the bare block.

Kay

I would love to see photos of that. Please share if/when you take them!

Ladies, don't panic over the power tools. Just use your common sense.

Amazing what inspiration and motivation can overcome, though, isn't it? Git'r'Dun. And, congrats on the courage to get out instead of sitting, waiting, and complaining. Great positive attitude!!

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:Ladies, don't panic over the power tools. Just use your common sense.

Amazing what inspiration and motivation can overcome, though, isn't it? Git'r'Dun. And, congrats on the courage to get out instead of sitting, waiting, and complaining. Great positive attitude!!

You're making me giggle, now. I feel much more comfortable with a scalpel or a bone saw than a power saw. But, same difference. ;-) I'm sure you didn't mean to talk down to us poor, incompetent wimmin, right?

No....it was meant to be encouraging. Kind of the "you can do it" speech. And, in reading your sig....just replace "seeds" with "power tools" or "bone saw" and you're good to go.

Now, if I had said, "Really? Power tools are a man's thing.....get back in the kitchen." THAT would have been talking down to you. My wife has beaten all of the Archie Bunker out of me.

I would believe that, if you hadn't prefaced your remark with "Ladies". Go back to your wife, I think you need another beating. ;-) But thanks for the encouragement, it is always appreciated!

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:Ladies, don't panic over the power tools. Just use your common sense.

Amazing what inspiration and motivation can overcome, though, isn't it? Git'r'Dun. And, congrats on the courage to get out instead of sitting, waiting, and complaining. Great positive attitude!!

I do pretty good with the screwdriver/drill and the stapler. All came in the Craftsman Combo I got for Mothers Day in 2004. Today was the first time with the trim saw. Next up, the recipricating saw. Can I use that on the electrical conduit to make my trellises?

Kay

I used a grinder to cut our conduit. A reciprocating saw can be used so long as you have a blade that can cut metal.

One thing I learned last year is that my conduit sank down in the mix a little bit. I aimed for a length 6" over my head (I'm tall) and I think in the future I'd go for a full foot.

walshevak wrote:
I do pretty good with the screwdriver/drill and the stapler. All came in the Craftsman Combo I got for Mothers Day in 2004. Today was the first time with the trim saw. Next up, the recipricating saw. Can I use that on the electrical conduit to make my trellises?

Kay

I used a hacksaw, it was easy to control and the metal is actually quite soft and easy to cut through.

walshevak wrote: Can I use that on the electrical conduit to make my trellises?
Kay

You sure can. Use a fine toothed blade made for thin metal-it will say so on the blade. Figure out how to safely secure your conduit so it doesn't bounce around.

A reciprocating saw is my wife's favorite power saw. She feels comfortable using it, knowing that she won't cut a finger off. She used to 'borrow' mine so often out of my work truck, that I had to buy her her own!

I used a good old hacksaw...no power for me....lol. I wouldn't use the reciprocating saw on conduit/metal, either, unless the blade was made specifically for metal.....which is why I used the hacksaw. I don't have any other options at the moment.

That reciprocator is great for anything else you want to destroy from what I've been told. I have some buddies that love doing demolition work with them.

But, then again, I'm not much of a "power guy." I'm more of a "finesse" type.

Temp hit low 70's today. I finished boxes #2 and #3 and got started on box #4 before I ran out of hardware cloth. I even made a bug net hoop over one. I see a trip to LOWES in my future. I would have filled in the rest of the day making my mels mix, but it was way too windy.

Chives come up in their pot, but need to be thinned. I've had this pot of chives since 2003. Survived a Chicago winter before coming to NC. Found some collards in my flower beds. I spilled some seed last fall and just swept it off the porch. They came up , but the caterpillers did such a number on them I didn't expect to see them this spring. But of course they are in the wrong place.

I really need a calm day now. I've got enough boxes to start direct seeding if I can get my MM made.

Everything looks great.

The only power tool that I am afraid of is the Nail Gun. BIG ONE. I was nailing some hand rails a few years ago and shot my index finger in the knuckle. ---I am getting over it slowly but surely. That knuckle had arthritis for a few years but getting better too.

I like your idea of using wood across the blocks to make room for two beds instead of one. I would use the landscape timbers ====less likely to sag in the middle later on.

Have fun.

Idea I may steal to hold the beds. Dresses up the block.


all six bed put together



bug net bed before wind

bug net bed after wind. Who knew bridal veil tulle could catch the wind that much. May have to modify my support system.

Poor Walshevak, that wind can be a pain in the toosh.
I would have thought the wind would have just passed through the tulle, not picked it up and thrown it around. I hope you find a simple way of stabilizing it, because I wanted to use some tulle on at least one bed, that will have brassicas. Trying to outwit the cabbage worms.

Oh My Gosh, I just saw the Table Top that fell off the cinderblock supports! Glad you were not out there playing with the Table Top when that happened.

Hopefully when filled with your MM and then watered it would be too heavy for that to happen and the tule will work great! I know I have heard others use it successfully.

walshevak wrote:Idea I may steal to hold the beds. Dresses up the block.

Hi walshevak,

Love the dress-up idea, but now that I see your photos, I am concerned.

I am pretty sure that cinderblock is designed to bear weight with the holes pointing up. I would hate to see one come crashing down under a bed filled with Mel's Mix.

Also, those beds do not look all that level, and the ground beneath them has not been compacted or prepared. I don't know how much frost heave or subsidence/soil compression you get in your area when the soil gets wet, but the blocks could de-level themselves even more once they are carrying a full load, especially when standing up-ended like that.

Hope I am not being paranoid, just don't want to see you or anyone else getting hurt. I am afraid you are going to have more come down on you. (Part of my job is keeping an eye out for dangerous installations, albeit in a very different venue...but it was enough to trip my Dangermouse alarm!)

p.s. Your boxes are BEAUTIFUL and I am jealous! Hope mine will be half as nice.

The lady at the fabric shop where I bought the tulle said that I'm not the first one to use it that way. Cabbage worms decimated every bit of salad mix I planted last summer. Never got more than a few leaves from several plantings.
The wind has been too much to try and fix things today and it's supposed to rain tomorrow. The swales in my yard are caused by the leach field of the septic system. May have to move the bed to a side area away from it. Will investigate Wed.

Kay

The boxes have been stablelized and I have my first "real" sq ft box completed. Just need to plant some cool weather crops. Next project will be trellis.