When last we left off...YESTERDAY'S POST...I had eight giant boxes to move to the backyard...
 |
| Raised bed boxes built and ready to go |
They were all stacked up neatly on the porch. Each one weighs about 100 pounds (a checked the weight of one 8' long board and it takes two to make one box). One at a time, I rolled them, like giant square tires, along the porch to the stairs...
And then I tipped it over and let gravity slide it down the stairs on it's side to the waiting cart...
 |
| Moving raised bed boxes |
Once at the bottom of the stairs, I pushed my Rubbermaid cart next to each one and then tipped it over onto the top of the cart. Then I just had to grab the cart handles and push it around to the back..
Then I put them in the general area where they would end up but I still had to figure out how to properly measure and space them. I knew that if I got it wrong, when I see them on Google satellite view they'd be crooked and it would drive me crazy, ha!
Because a tape measure was too difficult when dealing with such wide spaces, I came up with this idea. We had unused landscape timbers laying around. I measured and they were exactly 8' long. Using the piers on the house as a starting point/guide, I put two timbers end to end plus one that was cut to 2' long. That made them 18' from the house to the edge of the bed and with the 2' to the center where the tree will be planted, that puts the tree trunks 20' from the house.
I did the same thing to space between the beds. It still required a LOT of moving around...a foot here, turning at a slight angle there, going back and standing far away and looking at it and going back and making more adjustments.
 |
| Raised beds for fruit trees |
But after a few hours, here they are! They are all in place. I hope when I see them on Google Earth in a year or so, they are perfectly lined up, ha!
You can see in the photos that they all have cardboard under them and the one on the left in the foreground has soil in it. More on that in an upcoming post. It will take a few trips to get all the soil in and then I'll plant the trees at the end of the month.
Great job and smart thinking on the measuring part.
ReplyDeleteThat will look so nice once they start growing good, in bloom and producing fruit.
You need to find someone who hauls good top soil / compost. Much cheaper than buying the bags
Yes, we hope so. It's funny spacing them so far apart, but I have to think ahead to when we can let them, hopefully, get big and they fill in nicely.
DeleteI know the bags are expensive but A) it would be so hard to get the soil dumped behind the house (not way to drop it off back there because of trees overhanging and so even though they could dump it out front, then it would have to be hours and hours of work hauling it back there one load at a time. but the B) is the bigger reason, we have looked for soil delivery places but the blends they have are so iffy. We want to give the trees the best chance so we are laying with different things. It will be easier to just do a few at a time.
Omg, my back is hurting now. Good job. I can't do that anymore:( You are going to have a wonderful yard someday. Every year, I used to have a major project outside. My little dock I worked so hard on to fix the lights went off last night. I went out this morning to track down the problem and couldn't. It had a little slide box on the plug in that said extra fuses, which I got open and did see some little glass cylinders, but where the heck do they go? Such is my gardening these days. No progress. That's my rant for the day. I did get hold of the leaf collectors finally and he said, "I come tomorrow." Yay! I guess that is progress after all.
ReplyDeleteMy back hurt for a day but I pushed through. Thanks for the kind words, I hope they make it and someday not only look great but provide us with lots of food! Sorry about your fuses, I had a box attached to a pump once at a house my parents lived at and there were fuses but we had NO idea where they went. It was the oddest thing.
DeleteHey, take whatever progress we can, right?!?!
Very well done.I really like the size of the boards.Looks sturdy.You know I've been watching y'all and dang y'all have done alot of work to that place!
ReplyDeleteHey there!!!! Aww thanks for that. It's progress, albeit very slow progress, but we'll take it. Sometimes it doesn't happen as fast as we wished it would but we'll take what we can get. Thank you again. :-)
Deleteare fruit trees going to be able to grow in these? i don't know much about growing fruit trees in raised beds. if they have shallow roots will they be able to support the weight of the tree when it's covered in fruit? this will be wonderful if it works.
ReplyDeleteYes, the ground will be broken up underneath and they will eventually go down into the ground. Plus we've doing a mixture of garden soil and raised bed mix (and compost, etc, more on that in an upcoming post). This gives them a head start and they find their way down into the ground as they get bigger. We'll see!!!
DeleteYou did a fantastic job on building those raised beds! Lotta work!
ReplyDeleteThank you, it was hard but fun since the weather was cool most of the days I worked on all of it, ha.
DeleteHere's a question for you? Did you break up the soil inside each box before putting down the cardboard and adding the new soil? Just wondering because if your ground is really hard the young trees may have difficulty as their roots go down through that.
ReplyDeleteYes! Great question (and I'll have a post soon on how we did the inside) but yep, broke it up and then cardboard it over it. Then layers of soil/compost, etc. I actually almost forgot about that, ha. Thanks!!!
Delete1st Man,
ReplyDeleteLove the boxes!!! Will you be digging the ground below the boxes before bringing in your soil and trees?
Yep, used a pitchfork and turned it all over then layers of soil and compost. Fingers crossed!!
DeleteIt appears that being a farmer will make it unnecessary to go to the gym.
ReplyDeleteAmen to THAT! ha.
DeleteYou are really keeping buisy, what a treat your garden must be both from ground view and very soon from Googles little handycam chopters. I will keep a look out here on your blog on how your beautiful handywork is coming on and ask you for the coordinates so I can enjoy the sight of your farm. Please wave! And I said it before, watch your back, you are handling heavy stuff, 1st Man, and there is only one of you so take care, please! Yes, you do save money not having to visit the gym!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are so kind, thank you for this. I will watch myself and I hope it all looks ok someday on google earth, ha.
Delete