BARTSCHI BUNCH: Garden Project

We are planting a garden. Yes, I have tried for years to garden but this year is different. Bryant is building it. We are building a 500 square foot Raised garden bed that is along the left side and back of the fence. Here is our progress.

WEEKEND #1

We bought the bricks 9,200 lbs worth. Each brick is 30 pounds and cap stones are 10 lbs. We had 3 loads to get them. He also rented a sod cutter to get up the grass and cut the grade where we were building the wall.

Two yards of sand makes a great sand pile.

WEEK#2: Started building the wall

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY OF SPRING BREAK

Garren mixing dry cement and sand mixture for the base.

Bailey's cheer leading skills are unmatched. She also is good at hauling capstones.

Wall is growing

WEEK#3: (3/18 & 3/19) Wall building continues. Bryant continues to build the wall. As you can see below, we now have a pile of rocks (1.5 Yds of 1.5" drainage gravel). We didn't want to create a lake and we wanted good drainage because it rains alot. So next we brought in rocks (yes I know rocks and gardens usually aren't good to mix. We are putting a layer of weed control over the grass already there. We put rocks along the inside of the wall back filling the trench to facilitate drainage down the slope of the yard and cover that with the weed control sheet. Planting time is running down and we don't have any dirt. We had the elders over for dinner the night before our spring break vacation. They offered to help. The following week we took them up on their offer and you will see why...

WEEK#4: (3/25 & 3/26) The addition of the soil. Well Bryant calculated the soil. The boys had a campout on Friday. Bryant and I worked to get things ready for the dirt. Saturday I had to work (I am missing from pictures, Bryant is missing because he is taking the pictures). Bryant got up Saturday (after coughing all night and sleeping in the recliner - he fights respitory problems every year due to allergies) and got the 3 younger kids ready. He went to a mushroom farm 90 miles north where he picked up five yards of mushroom compost and hauled it back home and boys were home just in time to shovel dirt onto driveway. Then a dump truck came and delivered another 13 yards of garden soil. Then they spent the next hours hauling dirt into the garden (18 yards total). We were so very thankful for the missionaries help. I came home from work at 8 pm to see the last few loads delivered into the garden 9 hours of shoveling later and we have a garden.