The beds

After pouring over gardening books and blogs, we decided to go with cinder blocks instead of the traditional wood to construct our beds. We did this for a number of reasons: First, there was no building involved. With three crazy kids that love to "help" do everything, finding time to build projects is no small feat. Second, finding untreated lumber for the beds proved to be a bit difficult; and we didn't want to have to replace the wood once it rotted. Third, cinder blocks are inexpensive - each one cost less than $1.50. That was sufficient enough for my frugal-ness! There are many other advantages to using cinder blocks rather than wood as well, but there's no need to go into them here.

So, off to the big box store to purchase the blocks we went. As we drive a minivan, it was essential for us to also rent the store's truck to haul them home. Boy, are those blocks heavy! After lots of loading and unloading, (most of which was done by Cullen), we finally got our beds set up. Don't they look great?!

 

The beds!

Next step was to fill them with dirt. We bought 2 cubic yards of planting mix from our wonderful local organic gardening store, Fresh Start Growers' Supply. The guys there are a wealth of knowledge, and very helpful. They delivered the dirt and dumped it in the driveway. I resisted the urge to roll in it.

 

That's a lot of dirt!

 

Cullen did all the work to haul the soil to the back yard beds, while I was inside on kid-duty. It was a cold, dreary day; the kids and I were content to stay in the house while Cullen did manual labor. Once the beds were filled, we then measured each foot and marked it with string. Because the 12-inch mark didn't meet up with the intersections of the cinder blocks, we struggled to find a way to keep the string in place. I'm nothing if not resourceful; I got some bobby pins from the bathroom and used them to stick the string in the ground outside of the blocks. It worked like a charm. Just call me MacGyver!

 



 

(We will be planting companion flowers in the holes of the blocks)

Next step, get seeds planted in this glorious soil! Hurry up, warm(er) weather - we're ready for you!

--Autumn