Garden Project Madness

[botias]

To-do list (preliminary) to create new garden beds.

• Tear out old fence.


• Erect new fence four feet to the north.


• Attach four boards together to form a box. Paint it.


• Fill with dirt and dahlias.


• Enjoy.

Actual To-do list

• Dig post holes.


• Your post holes are full of water. Wait a month for the water table to go down.


• Purchase fence posts and cross braces


• Level fence posts


• Pour concrete footings


• You felled the 25 foot tree that was in the way. Great! Too bad the roots mean you can't put in the final post without dynamite.


• Paint and restore the facing wall of the garage.


• Attach final post to the garage instead.


• Install cross braces for new fence


• A tree stump is too high for the final cross brace to clear. Employ picks, hatchet and Saws-all. Hope you didn't have anything else planned for your afternoon.


• Install wire


• Install fence boards


• Cut the hundreds of staples holding wire to old fence with frightening and noisy angle grinder. Those sparks burn when they land on skin. Interesting!


• Roll wire and set aside


• Cut through the cross braces of the old fence


• dig out the concrete footings of four old fence posts and use the magic of leverage to get them out of the ground


• Hammer the concrete off of the posts and cut them into new corner braces for the raised beds


• Oh Dear! Tree roots have wrapped completely around the footing of old fence post number five. You'll have to get out the Saws-all for this one. Expect to spend at least 45 minutes.


• Dispose of rotten wood and broken concrete.


• Sort out 16 salvaged fence boards that are the least cracked/rotted.


• Scrub 16 salvaged boards, removing all dirt and moss.


• Let them dry overnight.


• Cut boards to uniform length.


• Prime one side of the boards, then let them dry and prime the other side.


• Ditto for 16 corner braces.


• Repeat procedure with two coats of paint. Bonus points! You used up a bunch of leftover paint on the first coat.


• Screw boards to corner braces.


• Move established plants that were along the old fence.


• Place and level new raised beds


• Sneak into former drop-off for used potting soil from indoor marijuana grows.


• Using big plastic storage bins, bring three car-loads of potting soil.


• Mix topsoil and potting soil with a shovel, about 50-50


• Purchase and install drip hoses.


• Plant dahlias.


• Enjoy.