The Garden Project- part II

So Thursday was the actual labor day.

Now that I have everything purchased, I began with the prep work on Wednesday...  I got the boards out and sealed with the Thompson's Water Sealer... and the day was a bit on the crappy side, so that's all I did!!!  I was FREEZING by the time I finished sealing all the boards...

Thursday was MUCH nicer, with the sun being out and the temps in the 60's.  So I had Carlos come with me to my dad's and help me get the boxes made.  Let me point out here how much I love this man!    He was more than happy to help me and never complained once!

First of all here is what the garden spot looked like when I started:

YIKES!!!  Yes this is the equivalent to a jungle... overgrown with weeds.  Oh well... I donned my gardening gloves and began ripping out the larger weeds.  Then I had Carlos help me measure out the area we needed to clear and mark it off... he loving volunteered to help me clear out this area.  AND since I can't take pics of myself, I snapped a few of him clearing out the space.

As I cleared the weeds out, I noticed that I had made the best posibble decision in making a raised bed garden because this soil... even though it is nice and dark, is FILLED with rocks.  I don't think anything would have grown!  So we started turning all the soil and digging out the area near the rock as this is on a hill there is a pretty good incline that we needed to level out.  This was a lot of work... but my hubby dug out the area and I help him rake out and turn over the soil and level out the area.

Yes, I know it SEEMS like Carlos did all the work... but I am the photographer and I can't take pics of myself while working.

So now that we had the area weeded, dug out, soil turned and leveled out... we were off to the construction part of the job.  First Carlos cut two boards in half for the "tops" and "bottoms"of the boxes.

Then he built the box frames...

Then with two 8' x 4' boxes all built... I grabbed one and Carlos the other and we transported them up to the garden spot we so diligently cleared and prepped.

and VOILA!!!!  here they are, set in their spots with leveled ground (somewhat) and ready for filling with topsoil and fertilized soil. 

The family shot... because we all worked hard today... Sebastian was very great today, patiently supervising while we worked.

Here as you can see, the garden boxes are much more leveled.

The next step is to go to Home Depot and purchase some topsoil for the bottom of the boxes and some fertilized soil (Miracle Gro) for the tops.  I would have done this on friday or even saturday, but Sunday we were baptizing Sebastian, so I had other preparations to take care of...

Stay tuned for more updates on the garden project!

:oP