Our First Project of 2023: Part 1

     As you may have guessed from my posting on Thursday, the boys and I are feeling much better.  Thank you so much for your prayers!  It is so nice to be able to get back to the things we enjoy.  The weather has been beautiful, especially in the mornings and evenings, so we are turning our thoughts towards outdoor projects.  Colton has some vacation time this month from both of his jobs, so we are going to try and make the most of it!  Working on projects together is fun for us, so it's a win/win.  I'm sure we'll have some downtime, too, though.  Maybe.

    For our first project, we are tackling this little spot:

    This is in the garden to the side of my garden shed.  Behind it through the screen door, is the chicken run.  (The metal building is the coop.)  Initially, the chicken run fence started at the front of the shed, but since our chickens free range anyway and we wanted more garden space, we moved the fence to the back end of the shed last year.

    It created this little nook, which has actually turned out to be more awkward than anything.  I thought about planting herbs and flowers around the perimeter and adding a picnic table or seating area in the middle, but it never happened.  About all that has ever grown here is stinging nettle.  In reality, I am not very good at a cottage-style garden layout, as much as I absolutely love the way it looks.  My mind operates better with orderly rows.  And living where we do, I always have snakes on my mind when the weather heats up.  Lots of bushy plants on the ground are perfect hiding spots.  

    So what to do?  Can you guess?

Maybe another photo will help...

    Colton is building me raised beds!  I'm really excited about this project.  As crazy as the last year (two, really) has been, I haven't been able to have a garden like I normally do.  I've missed it so much.  I think this will be much easier for me to manage for the time being. Eventually, I might give the boys their own little section of the beds to grow things in.  In any case, I think this is a good use of the space.

    So far, we (when I say we, I actually mean Colton) have leveled the area, put down black plastic, and built the frames for the beds.  We already had the dirt for leveling from another project we did last year.  We also already had the black plastic.  Someone at work gave Colton a huge roll, and we just set it aside for "just in case".  We always seem to have projects, so we gladly accept free materials when offered!  We did buy the lumber, but the price is surprisingly coming down, which is nice.  

    Stay tuned for progress reports!