The bed in the background against the fence is 12 X 6 and will will eventually have blackberries. In the foreground is a 4 X 10 bed that will be the Standard Bed to be repeated down the fence line. I have a fair amount of slope (about 6" of slope running right to left over the 4' width) making raised beds the obvious solution. The landscape cloth will eventually be covered in pea gravel.
The white 3" PVC running the length of the bed is protection for a series of 1/2" irrigation hoses. They start at the front right corner of the 12 X 6 bed, run through the PVC and will pop up at the front of each bed. Here's an overhead shot of the bed.
And here's where they all come together.
As you might be able to tell from the overhead shot of the bed, the soil does not look impressive. Sadly, it looked worse after I turned it. Frankly, it looked more like subsoil masquerading as soil, with 1/2" of topsoil laid on top like a coating of chocolate icing. It is a testament to the toughness (aka weediness) of grass that it was doing so well. While turning the ground I pulled out 2-five gallon buckets of rocks from the 10 X 4 area and managed to find only one live worm. Evidently he was lost.
Luckily, the appropriate amount of lime and 6 inches of compost will cure most of what ails this combination of red and yellow clay. Add in a soaker hose and now we have something a bit more likely to grow something:
Now just a little more compost to bring everything even with the soaker hoses and it's time to plant!
No comments:
Post a Comment