Tuesday 21 July 2020

Raised beds - and almost raised voices!

The Pilgrim, copyright of Peter Murphy.
When Wee One and family were home the other week we ended up with three tents pitched on the lawn. They looked like a version of the three bears, Wee One's large, newly-bought second-hand tent, our old family tent, and the tiny one-man tent that Himself had used on his backpacking trips. How nostalgic he was about the latter! "It's great," he said, "and just as good as new." He went inside and lay down in the small space. I watched from the kitchen window as he crawled slowly and awkwardly back out. Should I go and help to extricate him? Oh, yes, our camping days are definitely over!
Every aspect of his backpacking had been a wonderful antidote to the stresses of his work. The equipment was very carefully chosen to be as light and practical as possible, the camping stove an ingenious object no larger than the palm of his hand. Maps were poured over, detailed plans made. I did the drop-off and collection at the end of some of his trips in various parts of the country, the Cleveland Way in Yorkshire,  the Brecon Beacons in Wales and parts of the South-West.

Bending to pick strawberries in our weed-strewn patch was just as awkward as crawling out of the small tent and it made me think how much easier it would be if we had a raised bed. Resistance from Himself - he saw carpentry work looming. But I measured up and got prices for wood from local firms. All were more expensive than pre-cut raised bed packs found on the internet. Early one morning a few days later this neat stack of four packs had been left inside the gate.
I had already cleared the ground and ordered 1.5 tonnes of topsoil.
First to be constructed was a double height bed, one bed set on top of the other. There is no problem going to be had with dicky knees here!
The remaining two beds have been set down singly.
In the autumn the task will be to sort out the raspberry canes.
When the beds were done Himself looked at them and said, "You could buy a lot of strawberries for that." Was I mad - almost raised voices! He'll never make a gardener. (He was right, of course, but that's not the point.)

28 comments:

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  3. I love Peter's wood carvings. They are charming.

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    1. We for our part are very impressed by your work, Tom. Shall have to go to Iford and say hello to the lions - we haven't been there for years.

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  4. New wood seems so expensive these days, seemingly always more than pre-cut or prefabricated, even for something like a garden seat.

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    1. It doesn't seem to make sense, but I'm not complaining because the pre-cut wood was so easy to put together.

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  5. The raised beds are wonderful, Rosemary. I belong to a local gardening group and one of the members has done something similar. I would love to do the same but My Retired Man has retired. I do have one 2’ by 4’ waist-high herb garden and it is a pleasure using it.

    Did you get a video of your husband getting out of his tent?

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    1. My retired man put up a bit of resistance to the idea of the beds but I won!
      Getting out of the tent - too painful to watch on repeat!

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  6. Indeed that's not the point.
    Raised beds are good, I guess - I have no garden but see them appearing in more and more gardens.

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  7. Such industry! Home grown food in my experience has always been the more expensive option, haha!
    Himself's woodcut is very amusing. It seems like the hiker's just clocked the lion. What should he do??

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    1. Yes, I'll admit, ours are going to be very expensive strawberries. (But my knees and back will thank me.)
      The lion waiting in the shadows? Well, life feels like that sometimes, especially at the moment.

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  9. LOL...great post Rosemary! And good for you for insisting on the raised beds. I have dicky knees too and right now I wish my beds were a little higher! Small tent camping is out for me too! :)

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    1. I am imagining having a profusion of strawberries next year dangling over the edges of the raised beds - a gardener can dream!

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  10. But you'll still have to bend. Check out hubbie's reaction to the suggestion that a chest-high bed would allow you to pick the strawbs with your own fair lips.

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    1. Ha ha. Bending I can do, (which is more than can be said for Himself) but crouching and grubbing about on the ground is another matter.

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