Starting to Build a New Long Garden Bed

July 13, 2025

On July 7 (Monday), I was heading to the garden when I heard the ratatattat of a woodpecker. I spotted him on the power pole. I couldn’t get a good enough look at him to get a good identification.

Bruce and I rode the motorcycle to the bank so it would be open when we arrived. Bruce wanted change for a hundred so he could tip the Bama Dirt driver. This also allowed me to get my ride for PT in.

Once back home, we started working on putting together a tall Birdie’s bed. We plan to combine several beds into one long bed for asparagus. While working on putting the bed together, we saw a wasp dragging a spider.

I got a call from the Bama Dirt driver, he’d be arriving soon. When he arrived, Bruce directed the driver to the backyard. After the dirt was dumped, Bruce gave the driver a tip.

It was hot, so we called it quits for working in the yard for a bit.

The string trimmer line arrived, so I spent some time getting the string onto the trimmer.

I wanted to be able to trim the grass around the garden beds.

Bruce and I walked out to the mailbox. I noticed a Common Buckeye butterfly on vervain aka verbena.

We have so many Common Buckeye butterflies around. I haven’t seen a Variegated Fritillary butterfly in a while. They are migratory butterflies, so they may have continued northward.

We got a rain shower, with a rainbow afterward.

The temperature was a lot cooler after the rain.

We got more rain in the evening and didn’t get a colorful sunset.

On July 8 (Tuesday), we worked on the garden bed in the morning. This Hackberry Emperor butterfly decided my elbow was a great place to stop.

I checked the garden plants before heading inside. I found a yellow crookedneck squash ready to pick.

Are there other colors of crookneck squash? My family always said yellow crookneck squash, like “yellow” was important. I’ve never seen another color in the seed catalogs.

Bruce and I took turns showering as we were coated in sweat. I got ready to go to PT and Bruce came with. He picked up a 5-gallon bottle of propane last week while I was at PT. He got it filled while I was doing PT.

When we got home, Bruce put the new tank of propane on the grill. Bruce did some mowing while I did some weed whacking.

It was hot and we both needed another shower.

We didn’t watch the sunset, so no sunset picture for Tuesday.

On July 9 (Wednesday), we worked more on the garden bed assembly.

While we were working on the garden bed, a beautiful Red-tailed hawk soared overhead.

I finally remembered to take some pictures of our work.

We are putting the first downed pine tree to use. Bruce is also using branches from pine tree two and pine tree three.

I snapped this picture of one of my dill plants.

I put Borax mixed with sugar in a lid next to the rhubarb plant. The ants were attracted to the sugar and carried the Borax into their home.

On July 10 (Thursday), I was admiring my trough herb garden. I saw bumblebee bums on the marjoram.

Bees were in the squash blossoms and other insects were causing trouble.

I squished and sprayed the bad bugs and caterpillars, then I headed inside to get ready for PT.

Once back home, Bruce was mowing the back pasture when he noticed an ewe with a lamb. He came and got me. I could tell from the pink umbilical cord on the lamb and how the ewe was holding her tail, that the lamb had been born very recently. I told this to Bruce and he decided not to mow the area. He didn’t want to disturb the mother and baby.

While my camera decided to focus on the fence post, I decided this picture was a beautiful art picture. As Pee Wee Herman said, “I meant to do that.”

I picked the beans for a side.

We got a nice sunset.

On July 11 (Friday), we slept in. We decided not to work on the garden bed as it was very hot by the time we got up.

In the afternoon, I took a tour of the garden. While the two Japanese beetle traps are catching so many beetles, the Japanese Beetles are still eating their way through the tops of the pole beans.

I have a couple of small pumpkins turning orange.

In the late afternoon, it threatened rain. Bruce wanted to get a water redirection item under the downspout next to the front porch before the rain. I started taking pictures partway through the project.

We’ll see how well it works. I am not sure the French drain is large enough. Of course, it didn’t rain.

The arugula has self-seeded. I hope it will grow well in the heat.

We had a stunning sunset.

We walked from the backyard to the front yard to see it better.

This is such a long post, I am going to end it here.