Garden Project: Step One - Removing Daylilies and Building Beds

Early this spring, DH was watching one of those 'consumers gotta have this new product' shows.  The item that caught his eye this time was a raised garden bed starter kit. Basically, plastic corners into which you insert boards to create the framework of a raised bed.  DH had grown tired of our tired looking backyard with overgrown hostas and the floppy leaves of the daylilies. 

The Hosta Bed

Daylilies

To him, it was messy looking. To me, it was easy gardening and an unfortunate reminder that the hostas should have been divided at least 3 years ago. 

Okay - so we had a Spring Project at the ready. We just had to wait for the Ides of May and the blasted rain to stop.  In the meantime, we picked up the fancy corner things and, in a stroke of brilliance, composite deck boards to use instead of treated lumber. 

Supplies laid in, a loose plan for the plants and the corner things stood at the ready for our new raised beds along the back fence line.  The rain kind of stopped, but not really.  The May temps soared into the 90's!  Crap!  Oh, and the DH was suddenly busy elsewhere.  His sum total of this joint project was to cut the boards to length and slide them into the corners.  

Kind of Level

It was my job to dig out the daylilies, level the frames on the site and fill the new beds with organic material. Granted, we both picked out plants for the beds - perennials and ornamental grasses, for the most part, with a few annuals for more color and texture.  I was to be responsible for the actual planting, mulching and care. 

The raised beds are on two different levels, with the center section at eight feet long and six inches high. The two end sections are six feet long and a foot high.  In case you are wondering, YES, that's a lot of space to fill by hand with organic material!

A variety of soils and fill

Ready for planting!

By the time I got them to this point, it was 11 am and way to hot to even think about planting.  

Review of the plastic corner things - meh. They are not as rugged as I had hoped; a few of the flanges snapped off as DH was assembling the beds.  Had I done some additional research, I would have found concrete ones available and advocated for those.  On the other hand the composite decking boards worked great!