Getting Started

 

The weather was very cooperative today and I got a good start on the strawberry bed. In the picture blow, this is the original strawberry bed. Not very big. by the way the black thing coming out of the ground is a conduet that was buried going to the house when we thought the Internet dish was going to be located here.

 

Now I have the bed twice the size but it won't be quite as wide. I did that so I could work around the bed in stead of trying to do it all from one side which was quite challenging at times.

Now I have the strawberries dug up and separated. You can see the bucket in the corner with the strawberry plants in it.

I did some leveling and raking to try to get this area some what level. As you can see in the picture the driveway is going downhill to the right and the garden bed was doing the same thing.

Looks pretty good for now. On to the next step.

I got some old cardboard boxes out of the basement that needed to be hauled to the recycle and decided to use some of them under the garden bed. Last year the weeds tried to take over the bed.

I have picked out the boards that I wanted to use and with Don's help got them cut to the size needed.

I pieced the pieces together, but there is a division in the long boards and I had to do something to support these two boards together. So Don suggested I use a piece of steel strapping cut to length and then screwed into place.

Got it together and in place. Starting to look pretty good from here.

In the picture above you can see the steel strapping I used to hold the two boards together. The wood isn't the best in the world, but it should last long enough until it is time to dig out the berries and separate them again. At the right end of the bed it is still a little low so I will need to fill it in underneath the bed before I start to fill it up. I plan on working on it tomorrow. Today Don has to give a class on grafting at the library so the day will be mostly shot. Will keep you posted.