Thursday, October 8, 2015

"More Garden Re-Arranging......."

"Finally", after being here 3 growing seasons, I started on the removal of the low raised bed that had been in place when we moved here.  The raised bed behind the 4'x4' caged raised bed will be moved to this area where the soil is being removed.


The old raised bed was only about 6" above the ground level, and as some of you may remember, our soil is almost pure sand, so 6" isn't very much amended soil. My "grand plan" is to move both of my 4'x8' raised beds to that area, where they will have 1/2" poultry netting attached to the bottoms of the raised beds, in hopes of deterring the chipmunks from burrowing underneath and into them, but that meant removing the 6" of amended soil. 

I've now removed half of the old raised beds soil and moved the previously built raised bed to the prepared area where I attached the poultry netting to the bottom, it is now set in place and ready to be refilled. I will begin filling it by using the 2nd half of the old raised beds amended soil as the base, then fill it with the composted straw mixture that was previously in it.



The following photo shows how the straw and "Wholly Cow" (composted cow manure and peat moss) have broken down and and mixed well together, creating a wonderfully dark growing medium. This is what I will use to top off the amended soil from the low raised bed.


This is the other 4'x8' raised bed that I plan on moving once all the old amended soil is removed.  I am also thinking about redoing the "greenhouse topper" after seeing a photo of one on Facebook that seems sturdier and easier to work with while open. If I do, I will certainly post about it. :)


Here is another view of the "soon to be" renovated/re-organinzed garden area.


You realize, of course, that once both these raised beds are in place, it leaves their previous spots open.......perhaps building more raised beds is in my future?  ;)