Construction Begins at Winking Beagle Gardens…

The Raised Garden Beds were finally going to happen! About three years ago, I attended a workshop hosted by Rural Routes Magazine & Heritage Farms Nursery and became a believer in Heritage Seeds and Raised Beds. I just didn’t have any raised beds. After a long winter, the prospect of spring and growing season was starting to finally feel real. A few tulips were pushing their timid heads up in the flower bed, and  my mind was wandering to seed trays, bedding outs and vegetables. This year I haven’t started any seeds indoors, but have a great collection of Heritage Seeds and will be direct sowing a variety of them to see what happens…

This week was definitely one of those “long/short” ones. Friday night came and a flurry of texts regarding the building project ensued. Weather forecast calling for thunderstorms and possibly snow – appropriate for May 1st around here.

In my attempts to “control” outcomes I had planned to have all materials and accessories ready to go for Saturday morning. At a glance we must own thousands of different screws and nails – well guess what about 10 of them were 2.5″ screws. Really??? At that realization I became flustered – the thought of driving to town, wasting time etc. was almost too much. ARGH!!

RC had to go to town anyhow, so he would pick some up. According to him we had at least 2 hours of cutting before assembly could begin in the first place – as for me it took all I had not to cut my nose of to spite my face… No 2.5″ screws? well then this whole project is over – send the lumber back I am done! Where does that type of habitual reaction come from?? I’m going to start following the life lessons of the dogs –

Tina arrived with MORE straw, and I told her about the screws – she said ” oh well let’s get started”, and we did. There was enough prep work – RC went to town and we began measuring and cutting the lumber. Upon his return at least 2 hours later we were ready to start assembly. Of course RC had a few “suggestions” – to which Tina responded – “I manage multi-million dollar projects and seem to do ok – I am sure we’ve got this!” Much laughing ensued, and RC conceded…

Construction moving along – a few glitches here and there. When we had started bed 3 of 4 – I said to Tina – “We are doing pretty well here”. At that point I mentioned if I had been doing this with RC, there would have already been at least three arguments, some tears (not necessarily mine) and I would have been in the house already doing something else…

Sore feet, aching backs and screaming muscles, we pulled through and have the beds 98% complete. The final rain/snow storm blew in as we finished up the fourth and final bed – 8 hours into the project. The easy part is almost done! Now, to add the straw and soil… Not to mention figuring WordPress out…