My Garden Bed

This story begins with a wall. A large wall.

Our neighbours demolished their house and built a new one and in the process demolished the boundary fence between our house and theirs and put up a new one. The old fence had been just a thin line but the new fence is made out of limestone and is a lot higher. Since they put up such a huge fence I decided that I was going to utilise  our side of it. The block is sloping and I have always had trouble with all the water running off the bottom of my garden bed and the soil is just sand which is no good for growing anything.

So with Dad's help (to be honest he did most of it) I have put up one garden box and filled it with nice, rich soil from the garden centre.

Building a box sounds easy, after all I have done it hundreds of times with lego. But it is surprising how much work it actually is to lay bricks. You have to dig out a footing first (and avoid the reticulation) and mixing cement by hand is not exactly light work. So this is the wall ( the cement ran out before we got the last few capping bricks on so they will have to wait until we mix cement for the next wall).

I planted lettuce seedlings at one end,

2 rows of peas along part of the back, then capsicum seedlings. Several rows of carrots and baby spincah,

and pansies right along the front.

Seeing the garden grow each day is so rewarding. We have already had several pickings of the lettuce and baby spinach.

A raised garden bed is so nice to work with. The weeds can't just take over, they have to climb in and there is no bending over to work - it is all at waist height.

Next step: The rest of the wall and then two free standing garden beds on the other side of the garden. These are currently occupied by nasturtiums which are trying to take over the garden. I think that I will need the raised beds to keep them out.