I started out with three planks and six stakes, intending to cut one plank in half and make a rectangular plot. The first challenge was getting the sawdusty planks into the car - move over Bertie! - but managed in the end. Bonus: the car smells lovely.
But when I got home, I realised the plot would be too small, and I should get another plank and have a square plot. OK. By now it was too late to go back to the shop; not only that but I'd missed the first episode of the latest Dr Who series. Tsk.
So, Sunday I set out for the DIY shop again, and got the extra plank, plus two more stakes and three big bags of dirt. How big? Eighty litres. Why do they measure dirt in litres? Very odd. I might be more helpful to express it in stones, so you'd know you were picking up the equivalent of a dead rugby player. I tried to put one of the bags on my trolley and it fell on the ground. I couldn't get it up again. That was a clue I chose to ignore. A staff member hurried over and heaved three bags on dirt on to the trolley, and another staff member heaved them from the trolley in to the car boot. I drove home, suddenly feeling like I was piloting a barge.
I left the dirt in the boot while I dealt with the bed-building. Easy-peasy! Mark out the space, dig up the "lawn" (actually peed-on yellow spots and moss), bang in the stakes and nail on the planks. Digging up the lawn took a long sweaty hour. It turns out there is an amazingly healthy network of buttercups crisscrossing the backyard, roots like hawsers. So then I banged in the stakes. Bang bang bang bang bang ... ARGH! What I really needed was a Russian weightlifter and a sledgehammer, not puny old me and a joke mallet. Blam blam blam blam bangbangbangbang. I managed to get most of them firmly battered in, albeit at crazy angles, without having a heart attack.
I only really lost heart when I discovered that I didn't have any nails big enough to hold the planks on. And it was too late to go back to the shop, whew!
Today I thought I'd better get the dirt out of the boot before the suspension gave way. I don't have a wheelbarrow or anything, but I had a cunning plan! The brown recycling bin had just been emptied, so I'd just load the bags of dirt into it and trundle them round the back. Perfect.
The bin is chest-height, so I laid it down on its side next to the car and posted two bags of dirt in. The flaw in the cunning plan presented itself. Strain as I might, I couldn't lift the bin upright. So I heaved one of the bags out on to the footpath and this time got the bin rolling. Trundled it round the back and heaved it up the steps to the lawn. Repeated with the second bag, more slowly this time. Couldn't. Manage. The. Third. Just. Yet. So it's still in the boot.
Here's the scunner: With two bags of dirt laid out next to the bed, it's apparent that I'll need at least another three bags to fill it. I think this time I might see if Homebase delivers...
What with all this heaving and hammering I can barely raise my arms past shoulder height, and I've discovered bruises I don't remember getting.
The seeds I planted aren't doing very well - a scattering of husks on the tray marked "sunflowers" was a clue, as were the neat rows of holes in the tray marked "broccoli" (I thought I'd put that upstairs in pots but it must be something else up there).
At first I blamed the birds, but then I spotted a little wee burrow under the thyme bush. I covered it over and the next day it was back. That might also explain Bertie's digging frenzies: he's after whatever is burrowing in the bed. One of my neighbours has reported seeing rats - yikes, please don't let it be rats. The burrow looks more mouse-sized though, very neat and cute.
Garden pix:
The rhubarb is up! Yay!
Something eats the blue polyanthus every year. Not the yellow, not the pink, just the blue.
I've taken progress pix of the raised beds, will post them eventually.
Tomorrow I can't do any DIY or gardening or anything because I have some IT training at work. Finish work at 1am (if I'm lucky), start training at 1pm - wah!
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