Moved the Raised Bed Garden

Today we spent most of the day working in the yard. I started to move the raised bed garden last week but had so much going on and finding out Princess Two was sick etc kept me busy.  I posted in the past on our raised bed garden boxes and here is a link to that post. 

I took the boards from the raised beds we had and moved it so it could get some sun. The trees we have over the boxes kept them from getting sun so we moved it to the back fence. 

I thought it would be a simple move. Pick up the boards, take over the soil... Done right? 

Wrong! I wanted to use our much and as you can see by the picture of the soil where we took the box off above.  I thought I would use the mulch soil as you know from other posts, we recycle all our vegetable and fruit peels, rinds, etc. We started filling the new boxes up with first, mulch soil, you can see how dark and rich it is below. We had so many worms, you wouldn't believe it. Many types as well. We had tons of night crawler worms as well as the mulching worms. 

 Before we put the boxes down and soil on, we put some large refrigerator and appliance boxes under the beds. The weed guard we put down under the last beds was full of grass when we pulled it up today. I saw my sister used boxes and news papers under her beds at one point and thought that would be a good idea.

My sister suggested that we use a tarp at the base of the boxes and I started to use an old tarp but then thought about the paint on it wondering if it would make our food toxic so I used some black thick plastic. IT may be just as toxic but the weed guard did nothing in the last beds so I didn't want to waste money on more. I am hoping the plastic will drain well enough. If not, I will poke holes. 

The girls and I worked hard first filling the boxes with mulch. Next, we used the nice vermiculite soil from the other raised beds and then on top, we used the bark I brought down in the wagon on yesterday's post. Between all three, we filled the lengthy box up with some nice soil.  I like that the back fence has all the landscaped things now. I won't have to work so hard to garden as the trees got in the way. I need to fix a few more sprinklers on the lawn as we have a few dead spots but for the most part, I hope I won't have to work as hard. The fencing at the back is Cattle guard. It is very stiff and strong and holds the melons and tomatoes climbing up so we can have more veggies.

We tried and tried to get things done in the heat of the day but in the end, it was nicer to get it done when the sun was down. We worked until the bed was even and full which was finished about 10 p.m. I had some plants I bought a few days ago and kept thinking I would get the garden done and plant them. Some of the plants died but I am hoping I can get these one's to take off now that we have them planted. What a crazy day. 

We had enough bark and wood chips that I will use them in the front and side of the house for landscaping. While it was cool, I worked a few more hours in the front spreading the bark mixture. You can see how long the boxes are and I planted the plants and gave them a drink of water and pray they do well. It was a very long day and I have been trying to keep my mind of Princess number 2.