Manual labour in the garden. Not bike related

Well it's time to sort the wreck that passes for a garden. Nothing been done with it since when house built 1973, just a few boring borders that have really nice weeds. I planted a few lettuces and either the dandelions and buttercup choked them or they became slug dinner rather than Ed dinner

So I'm building some raised beds for veggies so I can control it better. What a job!!! This is the first. The problem is that part of the garden is on a slope, so to get the damn thing flat I had to dig into the slope, and it was like digging through solid rock.

Start with one piece of garden, measure the site, buy some wood. These are old scaffold planks I bought from a farmer in north Shropshire. They're imperial sized, 2 inches thick, 8 feet long and about 8 inches across:



Next, deturf the site. Now the eagle eyed of you will immediately notice the howling error here, but if you don't then read on, I come to it in a minute. It was doing the deturf when I realised 'this ain't gona be so easy', the ground was rock hard:



Then, dig for England. This is nec cos the soil is so compacted, you may as well have a concrete base if you don't dig. Look at this desert:



I threw the stones to another bit of the garden, now looks like the surface of the moon:



Then fit your timber for size, and check that it's level. I had to dig into the slope to get this right, f*ck it was hard. It would annoy me if every time I looked at it I thought 'Damn that's not straight'. Those who didn't spot the c0ck up, can you now?



I didn't add the thickness of the plank, so I had to dig out another small bit. Grr.

Then, take the metal ends of the planks:



They're damn sharp!!! Like razors, finger hazard!!



Got to this stage, beer time



And then check for level again. Ta-daaaahhhh!!!!!



Paint your planks, the wheely bins make great supports:



And then shove em in the ground!!!!!! Because the base is part sunken cos of the slope, I didn't need foundations as such, this beastie is going nowhere. I did two heights, and used some old 3X2 roof rafter from the build project as a support post, used no 12 4 inch screws, had to drill pilot holes first, then the screws went in a treat. It will look something like this:



Next, cos I don't want water evaporating through the wood, and cos I don't know what Cuprinol put in their paint, and don't want it leaching into the soil, I nailed a double thickness of landscape fabric to the inside:



And finally I put in some watering pipe so I can get water below the surface. This is just a 3m 32mm drainage pipe from B&Q sawn into 30cm lengths and screwed into the sides with a pipe clip. I ran out of clips, dammit, I'm one short. These fellas have a double purpose, I'll get some 25mm alkathene piping to make a support for a plastic or fleece cover, to warm the bed in early Spring or to keep out carrot fly etc in summer.

And it will look like this:



Then simply rake over the soil so it lies flat:



I'm leaving it now for a week or so, so as to let the soil tamp down itself a bit, and it's due to rain tomorrow so that will help. Meantime I'm building another three!!!! Then I'll put in a few cm of pea shingle, and then some galvanised mesh to stop moleys coming up - the bed will then be filled with topsoil and horse poo and whilst we don't have no moleys at the moment, moleys will be attracted by the worms.

Didn't cost much to build:

6 scaffold planks, £4.50 each
3 X 2 roof rafter free from the build project
Roll of landscape fabric, £13 (from Charlies here in Shrewsbury - much cheaper than a DIY store)
Roll of 25mm galvanised mesh, also £13 from Charlies
No 12 4 inch screws, £8 from Wickes
Nails to bash in the landscape fabric - I recycled the ones I took out the metal ends on the planks
3m drainage pipe - £3 from B&Q
Pipe brackets - 79p for 3, X3
1 inch screws for the pipe brackets - £2.50
6l (25% free!!) pot of Cuprinol - £6.99 from Charlies
Shed and fence brush £1.99 from Charlies

It was bloody hard work. The next one is easier cos I haven't got such a slope to cut into

Oh nearly forgot. Final stage is to get your cat to inspect your handiwork

[Bluepete]

Backbreaking stuff Ed! Are you sticking to one bed, or a few?

I've been making and fitting out my new shed. Just needs a stove and a chair...

Pete

Originally Posted by Bluepete

Backbreaking stuff Ed! Are you sticking to one bed, or a few?

Too right it's backbreaking. When I woke up this morning at 5am (cat howling at the window) I could hardly move, it was just a tad painful.

I'm building four!!!!!

[Geodude]

Nice bit of grafting you done there Ed.

Originally Posted by Ed

And then check for level again. Ta-daaaahhhh!!!!!

Ed, thats not level lol, needs a touch down on the right

Top work though

Only advice id offer from experience is fertile soil will rot the crap out of wood, id use damp proof membrane instead of landscape fabric, i did that before on my planters and they rotted big time, mine were made of ash as well.

[Jayneflakes]

Originally Posted by Ed

Hmm, is that an irritating neighbour that has "gone away" in there under the mound? Naughty Ed!

Looks good to me, jolly well done Sir. One hot bath and massage needed after that I imagine.

[tigersaw]

Originally Posted by Ed

Well it's time to sort the wreck that passes for a garden.

Looks a lot better than mine

ouch!
spent the last few days digging out earth smashing rubble and mixing cement for a patio about the size. I bet you ache a fair bit after shifting all the soil, but looks like a good job done.

Now thats 4 less irritable people Ed has to put up with or are they the people who fell from the scaffolding now there are planks missing lol. Dont listen to Phil its deffo up at the left a bit Good effort mate.