Hi! This week, I will write a rather long post about all that happened at our house this week. I have so many pictures that I was going to make a slideshow of them, but there were uploading problems. Sigh… I will just feature the best or most informative ones, then.

What happened: First, the raised beds were built. We didn’t build them ourselves, because we’re lazy, so we hired people to do it for us. A local man who has some machines and tools already took out our pool that used to be where the garden is, and we hired him to build our raised beds. Then, on two days notice, so I didn’t know about it last week, some people came and cleaned all the gunk (a surprising amount!) out of the fish pond, as well as taking about three quarters of the fish. With our permission, of course! Be prepared for some amazing before and after pictures.

The raised beds first, then.

They are built out of rough-cut, milled, white oak. I’m not sure where it’s from, because the builders brought it, but it is nice for our raised beds. Rough-cut means this:

Note the rough, splintery edges! We don’t need smooth edges for our raised beds, so we can use this.

Basically, how the beds were built: They cut the pieces to the right shape and size with a miter saw, and nailed them together with a nailgun.

Our beds were mostly 4×8 feet, but due to space considerations, some were 2×8 feet, and two of them were 2×4 feet. Now, the finished layout:

This, I think, is not the final, final layout, but this is all we need until next year.

Now, of course, we have to fill the raised beds! As I write this (Sunday), that is still a work in progress. Lucky we have a…

Tractor! (My dad in it)

We fill the raised beds with the tractor’s bulldozer scoop from the pile of dirt you see in the background. It is part topsoil and part compost, though it is not from our compost. We don’t have that much, and our compost is not fully compost yet.

Some more pictures next week, of what is in the raised beds!

And now, on to the fish!

The men were from, I think, a “marine services” company. Which means they take care of ponds.

So: A whole bunch of before, during, and after pictures.

Before:

 

During: (Don’t worry, only one fish died, and that was because it got caught in the pump.)

     

After:

  

Now, THEY LOOK AMAZING. There are only about 25 fish left- they took all the rest, for unknown usage. But you can see, all the way down to the bottom. It’s really neat. They look so good as to be distracting- I go out to garden, and five minutes later, realize I’ve been staring at the fish. Wow.

The gunk in there ranged from dead leaves and sand to real things such as:

A lot of frog and turtle statues, plus paperweights with animal pictures on them

Plastic toys: airplanes, misc.

Balls: pool, golf, misc.

Trash: plastic cup, tape, etc.

Where did all that come from?!?!?!

Anyway, next week: What’s in the raised beds! Also, something to consider for later: I will probably, over the “slow months” of the winter, be featuring someone’s garden, so take pictures of yours!