I started off with good intentions this morning - planning to whip back all the long stuff in unmowable areas. Sadly the whippersnipper thingy will not start for me (me and twostrokes have never been a happy combination) so I warmed up the mower and took it off-road for a bit, before concluding that was a bad idea.

So instead I started work on those two raised beds I have been talking about for weeks and which have been deferred in favour of various other demands on my time. This entailed getting out the angle-grinder. I have a five inch one that I lend to various tradies, but have never actually dared to use myself. But today was the day and it was an interesting one, shall we say. Firstly, I learned that operating an angle grinder with bare arms leads to millions of minute burns resulting from the sparks that fly out the back - so at present my arms appear to belong to a demented junky who has been shooting up for years. Secondly, I discovered it is not a good idea to blindly cut the metal when it is clamped to your sawhorses that have metal legs. One of the saw horses is now no longer safe to stand or sit on (ooops) and will have to be replaced fairly promptly.

Nevertheless, the four sheets of iron were eventually cut down the middle and so I have the materials for two raised beds. Two of the sheets were off-cuts from building the chook shed, so were ideal for end panels. The other two were full length. Then a bit of a hunt around for some off-cuts of hardwood for the corners and a whirl with the roofing screws and voila - one raised bed framework.

Then I dug out the perimeter of the rectangle so it could sit level, fitted it into the ditches, banged down the corners that seemed to be sitting a bit high and started back-filling it. Not gotten terribly far with that - still a few more barrowloads of compost and soil to go into it, but it is looking like it might, one day, be a suitable recipient for the tomato seedlings. What do you reckon?



This is running parallel with the lane but set back about 1800mm from the boundary to allow me to get down with wheelbarrows, and, at a pinch, a vehicle or trailer in the event that part of the boundary is ever fenced. It also allows space in case I plant a hedge there. Beyond the new bed is a small rockery/retaining wall with the three tyre steps I made not so long ago. Then it moves into the various tank rounds that make up the retaining wall for the septic tank. You can see a rusty tank just peeking around the side of the soil heap which will be cut down to make the bed for the bay tree and strawberries. I may still have enough for a second small circular bed whose use I have yet to work out.

You should also be able to see that there is a suite of three sheds now, roughly forming a courtyard-arrangement. The middle one is the one we shifted forwards the other week, and the one on the right is the future toolshed and gardening/potting shed once it has a new frame and possibly a new roof. I plan to shift the door round to the next side and install some panels of glass I have in the wall facing the middle shed. That will give natural light from the East (ish).

The long part of the new bed faces north, so another one above and behind it should also get good sun and will bring things up to the level where the main part of the vege patch will eventually be.