Grave Digging in the Burbs

Grave digging... snort... 

 

Thanks to my Mom and Dad doing a backyard re-do, I came into some bricks.  These are not your normal little brick red bricks, either. They are serious bricks, retaining wall bricks.  They are big and heavy and exhausting to move.  I have about 45 of them.  This is obviously not all of them, but there, now you have the idea. 

 

I thought and thought about how I wanted to use them, and I decided that I wanted to dig up some of the grass in the yard and make vegetable beds from them. 

 

So on Monday, The Guy and I got to work.  We dug, and we hauled, and we dug some more.  Pulling up grass, moving dirt, laying weed blocker, moving stone.  By the end of the day, we were tired.  Unfortunately, it didn't look much like a garden bed at all.  It looked like a grave, out there in the corner of my yard.  Oh man. 

 

The Guy left me to go work on another project, and I got to work laying the stone in, to keep the grass out of my new bed.  The retaining wall bricks are angled, so I alternated laying them face up, then face down, so there wouldn't be holes in which the grass could come through.  I thought that, for sure, once I got the stone in, it would look better. 

 

It still kind of looks like a grave though, doesn't it?  Now, I still have 3 cubic feet of compost and 3 cubic feet of chicken manure that need to go down (not all of it in that grave... er, hole).  I have to fashion some fencing first, before I do that, because once the chicken manure goes in, the Trampler and the Fuzzy Digger will think it's snack time.  Ugh, gross...but true.

 

 

On Wednesday morning, I had some time before the Pipsqueak had to be at school, and we had no plans, so I decided to see what I could do to make it look less like a grave and more like a stylish, custom garden bed.  This is what I came up with: 

 

 

 

 It still needs some cleaning up, and yes, it still needs some compost and manure to plant in, and mulch to finish off...  and of course, it needs plants.  It's still a wee bit early for my seedlings, provided they leaf out and are ready in time.  Othewise, I have a date with Louie's Nursery...

 

At the top corners, I have two determinate tomatoes that I picked up over the weekend, and in the middle there's a Jasmine, which should attract bees to the area.  It is sooooo fragrant!  When it was in the house it was overwhelming!!!  At the bottom corners, I planted some lavender for the same purpose...  bees!!! 

 

Yes, I built that trellis for the Jasmine, and I know it's pathetic.  Don't judge. 

 

So that's that.  Now the Pipsqueak is banging on me for breakfast...

 

Green Thumb Out.