New Garden Beds

Our strawberry bed needs to be redone.  It's too hard to pick them from the inside of the bed, so Lily requested that we make new beds that could easily be picked from both sides.   Since she does most of the strawberry picking and I don't have to, we were happy to comply.   

We started digging on New Year's Eve.    Warm and windy and perfect for digging.

First we had to peel all the grass off the clay.  Then we had to carve in the drainage and then build the beds in place.   We left a couple of sides low for now so it's easier to dump in sand and manure later.  

I love digging.    Really.   I'm short and I have a strong back and a shovel that's just right for me and I love a few hours of digging.  

By noon on New Year's Day, the wind had shifted north and it was too cold to continue.   This is as far as we got last weekend.  

It's supposed to be warm again this weekend.  We'll be putting geotextile in the bottom of the paths to inhibit weed growth and support the gravel a bit so it doesn't sink into the mud too fast.  Then we fill the paths with gravel.  Then we fill the beds with sand and manure.

As soon as I can, I'll be planting the strawberry runners from last year into these new beds.