Finishing Assembly of the Tall Garden Beds

January 16, 2025

I did want to share this picture I took on Saturday night (January 11). The moon was between Jupiter and Mars. Mars is circled in red at the bottom of the picture and Jupiter is circled in red at the top of the picture.

On Monday (January 13), the ground was sopping from the melted snow. The afternoon weather was warm enough we decided to finish assembling our large tall Birdies garden beds.

We assembled the last two beds on the sopping ground. My jeans wound up soaked at the knees and butt. Sunset arrived with its glorious pink and orange colors. We decided clean up and leave the placement of the beds for another day. I was happy to change into dry clothes!

When we took Nox out for her evening walk, the moon was beautiful. Bruce was looking for Mars. I pulled out my phone and brought up the Night Sky app. The moon was passing in front of Mars, in an event known as the occultation of Mars.

On Tuesday (January 14), we spent the day running errands, so we didn’t do anything more with the garden beds.

My seed starting trays had arrived on Monday (January 13). I spent some time getting the seed starter mix damp and then placed in the trays. I put the trays under the window of the dinning room. I decided I needed more light on the subject, so I placed orders for a grow light. While I was ordering I decided to go ahead and buy a warming mat for my seed starting trays.

On Wednesday (January 15), we took Nox to the veterinarian to have a sonogram. Her bloodwork had come back with some numbers that made the veterinarian concerned about her liver or gallbladder. The veterinarian wanted to see if there was an enough of a problem Nox shouldn’t have her dental work done.

We dropped Nox off at 8:00 AM. We ate breakfast out, then went shopping at Rural King, Lowe’s, and Tractor Supply.

While at Tractor Supply, the veterinarian called. Nox’s liver was slightly enlarged. We headed back to the veterinary office. We got a prescription for Nox to help her liver function. She is still okay for her dental visit next week.

We went home, relieved that Nox is mostly okay. It is fairly normal for an older dog to develop an enlarged liver. She’s about 16 years old now.

In the afternoon, Bruce measured out chicken wire and cut it so I could line the bottom of the garden beds. The two new tall beds needed to be lined and one short bed needed to be lined with chicken wire.

I also lined the three beds with cardboard. While I was doing that, Bruce hooked the cart to the mower and went in search of downed wood. He took his chainsaw and cut up some large branches. While he was cutting away, I went to let Nox inside. She was at the sliding door, looking in. When I turned around, I saw another man standing next to Bruce. They were chatting and I recognized our neighbor to the south. He had stepped over the low spot in the fence to hand over a piece of mail that had been delivered to his box by mistake.

I said thank you and took the mail. Bruce and I chatted our neighbor for a bit more. Our neighbor said he needed to get home and get something to eat. I thanked him again for bringing our mail over.

We returned to our down wood collection.

After several trips to fill the cart, one of the newly assembled tall garden bed was loaded with wood to a foot high. This is just under the braces inside the garden bed. We covered the wood with leaves to leave about a foot of the sides of the beds exposed. The leaves will settle, leaving more space for dirt.

Over the cardboard in the short garden bed, we put a layer of leaves on top of the cardboard to just under the bed’s brace.

We finished up the work at sunset. It was a stunning sunset. I was to busy to get a picture of the sunset at its peak. I did get a picture of the last bit of sunset as Bruce hauled the garbage can down to the road.

Today (January 16), when Bruce went to pick up the garbage can, I was out front with Nox. A truck pulled in behind Bruce and was following him. I realized Bruce couldn’t hear the truck.

Pulling the garbage can over our gravel driveway is extremely noisy. I motioned for Bruce to turn around. He turned around and saw the truck. It was our neighbor from across the road stopping by to introduce himself. The neighbors are happy to see that we are cleaning the place up and making it look good.

He said he’d like to bring his wife by sometime, which we agreed to. She’s busy with the garden club and some other clubs. I mentioned I would like to join the garden club. Our neighbor has cattle and has them in three different locations. He said it keeps him busy. We thanked him for stopping by and exchanged phone numbers.

In the afternoon, Bruce tried out his electric pole saw attachment. He was pleased with the results. He trimmed several branches while I placed smaller downed branches and rotten branches into my wagon. I got one wagon load into the last tall bed.

Bruce was ready to start loading the cart and wanted me to help. We pulled out several thick, long branches from the ditch in the back pasture. The ditch has a heap of rocks and branches, along with some piles of concrete.

Bruce cut up some large bushes that had been pulled out by the roots and dropped into ditch. We were able to use the trunks and roots as filling for our hugelkultur base in our last tall bed.

We placed the wood into the bed to just under the brace and covered the wood with leaves. We just have the one more bed to put leaves on. I am holding off on putting leaves in the bed that the logs had fire ants on them. I am hopeful the bitter cold coming on Sunday to Wednesday will kill all the fire ants we moved.

Bruce put away the mower and cart, then he came and got his electric tools. I stayed outside to cut chicken wire for a compost bin. I formed the bin by twisting the two cut ends together. I was wearing heavy duty gloves to protect my hands. In the past, I’ve made chicken wire compost bins and had great success with them.

I put the new bin by the hills of leaves and the compost pile I had started next to the shed. I got a pitchfork and pitched in a layer of leaves. I pitched a layer of the started compost pile into the bin, spreading it evenly over the leaves. I repeated this one more time, then added a layer of leaves to cover the food scraps.

That was enough work for me today. I carried in all the hand tools and put them away.

In adding the pictures, I realized I need to take some after pictures.