More Garden Progress

In between rainstorms, we have continued to work toward completion of our vegetable garden. We still need one more full day (ok...maybe another half day on top of that) to finish the enclosure and hang the gate. Still, we've made some progress that is worthy of sharing (lucky you!)

The weekend of April 30/May 1 was cold, cloudy, and rainy. Terrible weather to work outside but good enough to solve the garden gate dilemma! This is one of the stall doors we saved when we took the walls down inside the lean-to portion of the barn. Turning it vertically (as shown here) gives us the exact right width needed.

Scott replaced all of the old hardware with new galvanized bolts. He had to cut a little notch to receive the hinge.

What looks like a horizontal screw will be pushed into the post, then pivot inside that little housing above. It's a pretty simple but strong hinge solution.

On Tuesday, May 3, we spent a few hours after work adding rebar reinforcements to the fence posts. Each side of each corner has an "X"-brace. The remaining openings are secured with two horizontal lengths of rebar.

The rebar was easily attached to the cedar posts with screws and conduit clips.

The rebar was further secured with a short length of wire.

With warm and sunny weather on Sunday, May 8, we were able to spend the entire afternoon on the garden. The next step necessary was to dig a little trench along the enclosure. Scott was smart and removed two tines from the roto-tiller to make a narrow little digger.

I followed behind with a tile spade, sharpening the edges and removing loose soil. (Side note: this was hard work for me! I actually had sweat on my brow!) Chicken wire will be added along the bottom of the fence and buried about 4 inches deep to help thwart the efforts of burrowing pests.

Meanwhile. . .planting began! Carl and Marita were excited to plant several varieties of veggies in one of the beds.

The enclosure will be complete after adding two rows of 4 ft. tall welded-wire fencing.

Scott used his air compressor and nailer to staple the fencing to each post.

We were able to surround the enclosure without having to cut the spool of wire which was a bit unwieldy but worked great. The second spool will be trickier to deal with since it will be attached at the top of the posts. We'll attempt that soon!

By the end of the afternoon, it really looked like a garden! Maybe after this coming weekend, we'll finally be ready to plant something. 

Stay Tuned for Our Next Adventure!