The three day saga of putting in a new bed, or, I am very very tired

Day One.

So. The front of my garden that houses my shade veggies is a bit of a mess.

This fabric bed which was mostly an experiment in seeing what could grow in a shade patch was largely a success. It proved that quite a lot could grow in the shade.

Arugula for one, also my parsnips, lettuces, spinach-

And some lovely and delicious spring onions.

Now these were supposed to be bulb onions, but that didn’t work out. But that’s kind of the cool thing about onions, even if they don’t bulb, they’re still tasty and usable.

I bought a lovely metal raised bed over a month ago, as a replacement for the fabric one.

Fabric beds are great for a few things, but really not great for others. For a bed this size that’s gonna have a mix of plants, metal is probably a better and more permanent bet.

I dragged out the box, and started harvesting some arugula, when the heavens opened.

No problem just a sprinkle, I’ll wait a few minutes in the rain til it stops.

It did not stop.

Day two!

Nice and sunny!

It was a fairly straightforward construction operation.

And while the warning was alarming, and the instructions… vague, I’ve put together so many things both indoor and out, that I knew what to do.

And while it took a while, and would have been easier with two people- I did it.

I thought I could just drag off the old bed, or remove some soil, move, then trim the weeds- but nope.

Even with buckets of soil removed the thing was heavy and anchored to the ground. Turns out some weeds on the bottom had anchored themselves to the fabric and… I was too tired to continue.

Day three!

I just don’t have enough buckets for the dirt.

Plan B!

I weed whack first, and then dump it all out.

And when that doesn’t work so well, I shoveled it out and then cut up the bed with scissors.

Then it was just a matter of raking everything smooth and moving the bed over.

A burly ladybug tried to help me.

Alright! Took a few tries to get it as flush as possible- the original concrete bed isn’t the most square thing in the world so it’s not going to be perfect and I have to accept that.

Lining the bed with spare cardboard and bags.

Took 7 bags of Organic potting and one bag of compost before…

Hallelujah!

All the lettuces I started from seed- some of the miner’s lettuce under the tree, all the spinach starts and room for me to scatter radishes and arugula between them.

And it only took me three days!

Slept well last night let me tell you.