A new garden bed to create a few Brownie Points - Updated

[grizz]

Brownie Points do not have an indefinite shelf life for those of you that are interested.

While I was at home without a job last year I managed to stock up and stash a load of Brownie Points...... these are now just running out.

I was able to sort out some FREE Railway sleepers to be delivered to our place by a guy in a suit (inside an overall) and another guy who seemed more at home in his overall.

Anyway, I started at 1.30pm toay after doing some other tasks this morning, by clearing some space where I wanted to make the new bed up.

Last year I did a 16 foot X 4 foot Ericacious bed for Nicola while not working. So todays bed will be part herb garden and part flowers or whatever she wants.

Started here this afternoon......




Space I had in mind.



Cleared



Working alone I decided the best part of valour..... and all that..... wore my safety boots as sleepers have a habit of slipping off the wheelbarrow at any time.



Halfway there.....



At this point I should have gone into the garage and put on my chainsaw trousers......

But wise ass did not, so the fun began.





Some recesses and creating fitting joints.





The bit on the left is a raised support for the one Belfast sink we got from Jabbo last year which has some herbs in.



At this point I decided to carve a Quick TIKI with the chainsaw..... thread elsewhere.











Not its final resting place.





Until I get couple of tons of topsoil delivered to fill the hole, that then is it.

Dinner was a lovely BBQ and I mad my own very good Honey and Mustard basting for the rack of ribs I bought this morning.

All in all, not bad for 3hours work.

Now to sit back and watch the Brownie Points accumulate.

That is, if Nicola does not get to see this thread.

[rebapuck]

You are going to box out the tree aren't you?

[grizz]

Was tempted to box the tree but will take my chances, if it survives, great if not, ooopppss. Or maybe I will make a quick box over the weekend and put it in place.


Just a quick update.

Ordered 2 ton bags of best topsoil to be delivered yesterday - £110 delivered. That hurts my head..... but I need good clean soil for the beds and the farmer would probably not be impressed if I went to the fields and started digging there.

Got home last night and found them plonked on the wrong side of the drive etc.... but hey-ho job had to be done.

So Nicola and I got going, halfway through the first bag, neighbour Mickey came around and chased Nicola indoors to make tea and then the two of us quickly ran the rest into the back of the property.



Cheap labour is a great thing, and I have to say, she really does know how to get her back into a shovel and load a barrow.



Once the new bed was filled to overflow and tamped down the rest of the soil was used by Nicola to topfill the beds I made last year and I also used some to dress some of the lawn under the pine tree.



That then is the job done for now.

Next up will be various plants that need to planted out of pots etc and hopefully a few usefull herbs.

[bc toys]

Hate to see you loose that nice tree but maybe it will last nice bed for planting herbs

[mezmo]

Good Job you guys!

With such nice raised beds you'll be able to grow a lot
in a very small space - intensive gardening - if you're up
for it.

Just curious. also, about the car behind Nicola in the
pic of her by the dirt containers. It looks to have a
sliding door ? ? ? What make is it?

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[grizz]

Good Job you guys!

With such nice raised beds you'll be able to grow a lot
in a very small space - intensive gardening - if you're up
for it.

Just curious. also, about the car behind Nicola in the
pic of her by the dirt containers. It looks to have a
sliding door ? ? ? What make is it?

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

Hi Norm

Nicolas car is a Peugeot 1007 with 1400cc diesel engine.
It is our second one. The first was a 2005 model 1.4l petrol one which she loved.
We then traded it on a 2008 top spec model diesel. Fitted a towhitch for my trials bike as my current company car is a rental so I cant have a towhitch fitted.
She had a Smartcar before these and wants one again. But the Peugeot is a four seater that fits 4/5 adults with no baggage.
They were never hugely successfull in the UK but the Europeans loved them.
If we could get another new one to buy now I would push for it. They are really versatile second family cars but can work first line too.

Google Image search Peugeot 1007 for better pics. I am replying from my phone so copy and paste is not easy.

Hope that helps.

[grizz]

Just tried to copy and paste from Google images. No luck.

Great pics there though.

[grizz]

Just another quick update.

I had a few comments on various forums to clear the soil around the tree stem.

Dug it out this morning and made some very basic panels to slip in there, then backfilled and put small bits of wood on the corners so that Nicola can add plants there as well, raised up against the tree trunk.



Then put in a few plants that have been waiting to be planted out.

The Fuschia should cover the trunk over nicely too.



Tomorrow is bootfair and with a sunny day forecast, I predict we will come home with a load of plants to fill the bed up.

Nicola does like her plants.

[GRY GHST]

beautiful property you have there.

[grizz]

beautiful property you have there.

Thank you.

This is one of the only pics I have of what it looked like before we moved here.

Looking at it now, we have done well.

[grizz]

Today Nicola asked me to make her an arbour to sit in to read..... what is the whole house for ?

The idea is to place it on the edge of the decked area.

This one is about £250 at B&Q our local DIY store www.diy.com

So the question is, do I build it, or buy it?





These jobs never seem to end.

[eamarquardt]

Does anyone use the "jungle gym" and slide? Perhaps you could recycle it into what Nicola's heart desires (and use the £250 for something else but I'll leave that up to you).

Free brownie points. A win/win.

Cheers,

Gus

[grizz]

Does anyone use the "jungle gym" and slide? Perhaps you could recycle it into what Nicola's heart desires (and use the £250 for something else but I'll leave that up to you).

Free brownie points. A win/win.

Cheers,

Gus

Hi Gus,

Jungle Gym was out the lawn before I even moved in, donated to Mickey next door for his grand children.

Will have to go buy some timber this time, as i have used up all my scores.

[eamarquardt]

Will have to go buy some timber this time, as i have used up all my scores.

#2 son, Corporal Marquardt, USMC(R) just moved to Golden, Colorado to attend the Colorado School of Mines. His new basement apartment is 1 mile from school and 0.8 miles from the Coors Brewery and three free beers a day. It's only a ten minute walk from the school to the Brewery. I told #1 son I didn't think that that was a good thing. He agreed with me (a rare event). Then I learned why he agreed with me. He thinks the proximity of the Brewery to Mines and Eric's apartment is a GREAT thing. I guess we don't agree after all. I digress.

Anyway, #2 son left his BajaBug and flatbed trailer here. I wanted to take the wheels and tires off to keep em out of the weather so I had him make some stands out of 2X4s to keep the trailer off the ground with the wheels off. We made em kinda like "Lincoln Log" structures. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=lin ... ORM=HDRSC2

In my travels I noted a bunch of 2X4s that had been sitting in the trash bin area of a local glass shop. Sooooooo, I sent him down to see if they'd let him have some of em. He "scored" more than enough to make all four stands and then some.

Pays to keep your eyes open for "recycling opportunities".

I love some of the things you've made out of recycled wood. Maybe you can scrounge a bit before splurging and buying wood.

I picked up some pieces of 24" diameter PVC pipe yesterday. The walls are about 1" thick. I'm gonna cut em into about 16" high pieces and make raised planters out of em for Suzy's blueberry bushes. We gotta put em in planters and fill the planters with "special blueberry dirt" as our soil isn't suitable for blueberry bushes.

Cheers,

Gus

[mezmo]

Hi Rian,

Thanks for the car info, It's quite a nifty looking little 'Ride' ! - A very
creative approach to a small vehicle. We miss out on a lot of the
unique automotive ideas [that I've come across from elsewhere] over here.

As far as the arbor goes, If the quality of the wood in it is better than
you can get yourself as a woodworking consumer, and if their build
quality is acceptable to you, I'd go for purchasing the pre-made one.
Also factor in the time it'd take to build one yourself versus just
installing the pre-made. We got a pre-made one a few years
ago, as I didn't have the all the tools or time to build a comparable
one from scratch.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo