Day 4 & 5 Finished!

Day 5 and I'm finished!

I spent 3 hours yesterday (Day 4) redoing the newspaper bed.  I removed the frame, took out all of the newspaper I had laid down and double dug the bed.  Then I reinstalled the frame.  I was tired by the end of that 3 hours and called it a day.

Today (Day 5) I filled all of the beds with soil.  I'm surprised it took almost 5 hours to do!  I also cleaned up the work site a bit.  I found that it was faster to mix the soil directly in the beds.  I started by mixing in the wheelbarrow and that wasn't very efficient.  I'm planning to make a summery post so that all of the important information is in one place. 

All-in-all this project took 5 days (about 22 hours not including travel time to the many stores).  I was able to do most of this myself, but you definitely need a second person to lift the raised bed frames and set them in place.  The cost was about $250 with soil. 


And so we start!  We went to a few nurseries and bought some starter plants.  I was surprised to really like the plant selection (and price) at Fred Meyer.  I went to the one in the Ballard/Fremont area.  Their plants were healthy and well watered with the exception of a few cucumber flats. 

I'm also starting a few things from seed like spinach, lettuce, radishes and peas.  I've found with plants like tomatoes and peppers I get better results from buying gallon pots.  It'll be my first time growing broccoli and cabbages.  I never had enough space before, they're such HUGE plants.  Fingers crossed!


As I was finishing off with the beds I looked over to the gate and began to wonder what I can do there... maybe a row of raspberries or asparagus?  This will be the never ending project.