By plot, I mean 63P. By thickens, I mean some new stuff exists. That’s it. That’s the pun. I’ll see myself out.
If you’ve made it past that excruciating eye-roll of a first sentence, I congratulate you. Now let’s get to the juicy bits. 63P is one step further in its evolution. We’ve got a lot to cover so let’s dive in.
First up: Introducing Zeppo
Zeppo is slightly smaller than Groucho, clocking in at 4×7 instead of a 4×8 for what I assume was the previous plot owner’s design choice to make space for the plot entry door. Hence, since Zeppo had a smaller role in the Marx Brothers films, he gets to claim name ownership of this bed.
The soil is in much better shape than Groucho which is a pleasant surprise. This means it will be easier to break apart and turn amendments/compost into it without needing to listen to motivational speaker podcasts to get me pumped up.
Slight addition by the way – the raised platform.
This raised platform I believe must’ve been added as additional height for the drip irrigation tower relic of the past, seeing as this is the highest corner of the plot. I personally don’t think it needs to extend this far so my plan is to shrink it down. However since it shares a wall with Zeppo I had to do it all in one go. No time for groveling. Let’s do this!
I removed the decaying wall and cut another 2×12 but a bit shorter length and installed the raised platform wall. This gave me the support needed to build the side of Zeppo and finish Zeppo’s first level. I’ll deal with the other piece for the platform later.
The above is a nice indicator of how much the plot slopes just from Zeppo to Groucho. You can see the mismatch from the first level of wood. Seeing as how I wasn’t planning on renting a John Deere and haul a few tons of dirt in to level the plot, I’m just building into the slope. Gotta work around what life gives you, eh?
One of the tricky pieces of refurbishing these beds is that they already have soil in them, and hardware cloth is already installed (see it peeking out above). So, outside of emptying allllll the dirt, and ripping out the hardware cloth to replace, I’m trying to salvage as much as I can. So the hardware cloth that’s there is both a particular size and in a particular spot, weighted down by a lot of dirt. Because the old beds weren’t perfectly lined up with each other, the news ones also won’t be since I’m trying to place them along the existing hardware cloth borders.
Done! This pic is from the following morning which was pretty nippy, and I thought the frost looked cool. All that’s left is to turn in some soil amendments, add some mulch, and screw in some railing!
Here is the final new and improved platform, freshly mulched (and Zeppo’s new railing peeking out on the left).
Sometimes I forget that this is all for gardening and not just construction projects. I swear this blog won’t be so boringly and heavily weighted toward me blabbing about screwing wood together when it’s all completed. I’m hoping, you know, to grow some plants. Just want to clear that up.
Now that we’re done with that extensive plant talk we can move on to…Chico! You thought Zeppo was the end of the post? Cmon now, it’s been a hot minute since the last update and I’m not just sitting over here thumb-twiddling.
Here’s a self portrait of me trying to sit up straight for a quick photo which actually looks like I need to go to the bathroom. Regardless, you can see I’m sitting on Zeppo with an almost complete Chico in front of me. Chico was actually less complicated since there was no “shared wall” project. The most complicated part was having enough water on hand to drink on this first hot taste-of-spring spring day. Not a lot of shade in plot 63P.
Since you’ve been so patient, dear reader, reading to this point. I’ll just get straight TO the point. Here’s a nice shock value picture.
Groucho, Zeppo and Chico in all their glory, with a mostly mulched ground to boot. It’s amazing the amount of materials it takes to get this done. One car full at a time. Here’s but one day and 2 Home Depot trips worth:
The downside is I’m making tons of trips to Home Depot and it’s exhausting work. To build and fill the beds requires a LOT of new wood and soil, and to mulch the ground requires a LOT of wood chips. You’re welcome Home Depot stock owners for keeping the company’s performance up. The upside is I’m getting some really intimate knowledge as to how to Tetris wood and bars of crap together to maximize loads in this poor Subaru. I apologize to any future passenger for the smell of compost and potential wood flakes in your hair.
That concludes this round. One final picture to end this update on a gardening note:
The first starts are lookin’ good!
Next update will finally focus on some updates on these green thangs, and some new ones that recently made it into some new seed start pots 👀 what could they be? I’ll say that at least one of them has a name not even an English major Rhodes Scholar would be able to pronounce…
Until next time ✌🏼
Leave a Reply