Mama Kat Thursday:This Weeks Project

The Mama Kat prompt I chose today is, "share something you were working on this week," and that's perfect, since what I was working on was putting the veggie garden in.

However, putting the garden in led to another decision that will lead to new project in the fall...

This is my Veggie bed:

It's an in-ground garden. It's in the center of the back yard. I've improved it over the years so now it's walled in with castle blocks and the soil his higher level.
There's a bed of garlic chives at the far end and above that, a flower bed.

Prepping it every year involves throwing down a combination of garden fertilizer and lime on the soil then digging it in, either by hoeing or turning with a shovel.

There's only one major hindrance to contend with: pine roots.

Long needled pines are everywhere here and they have extensive shallow roots systems, which means their roots aren't deep, but they have a long reach. I've seen them as long as 20 to 25 feet.
I have a couple, but my neighbors yard nearby, right on the other side of the fence has about 18. There is no escaping the barrage of pine tree roots.

Here's just the roots I pulled out of that explosed dirt section in the picture above just yesterday:

I usually need to clear 6 to 8 inches; most of these finely webbed roots are very close to the surface.

Funny thing, Hubby and I have just been recently discussing raised garden frames recently. We have a friend who built some very nice waist-high ones for himself.
I even looked through the raised garden bed frames at Hayneedle.

So, here I was, out there, hoeing up webs of roots and snipping off the thicker ones, thinking about those raised garden bed frames and whether I wanted to keep on digging roots up every year.

When Hubby came home and walked out to where I was working, I'd just finishing smoothing the garden soil surface with a rake.
By then I'd made a decision:

"This is the last year I'm digging up roots," I told him. "It was okay when I was 40, but now I'm 62. It's time to make it easier."

Then we talked about the vinyl 4 x 8 raised garden frames I'd looked at online and discussed how we might organize them in the current bed space as project in the fall, since it's do late to mess with now.

When we went in the house, I promptly looked up Hayneedle to look over their selection of raised garden frames again. It occurred to me that if I waited till fall, what I wanted might not be available.

I noticed the vinyl 4 x 8 raised bed frames I liked were on sale for nearly half off and they had free shipping.

Hubby and I share the office, each with our own computers, so we talked about it and I went ahead a ordered two of the vinyl 4 x 8 frames. (pictured)
So, we've have them on hand, ready to put together, when we're ready to renovate my veggie garden space in the fall.

Hubby and I imagine a plan something like this:

We want to create walking space around the frames using the blocks and maybe patio blocks for the center.
To keep the roots out, we'll need to put down a layer of something like chicken wire and heavy landscape fabric.

But that's yet in the future.

Today, I finished up prepping area just dug for planting:6 mounds for planting 2 kinds of squashes and planted 1 seed of each.
 I also have two rows of beans; one already planted.
(I stagger planting, so everything won't be ready for picking at the same time.)

I added the 3 pots you see on the outside of the bed for additional garden space I didn't have to dig. 

The first pot with green showing is Spinach; the other two have a pickle-cucumber for growing in container gardens.

So, that's where this weeks project stands.

Thanks for Visiting.

(Also I'm not affiliated with Hayneedle.)