A few weeks ago, Sue and I were talking about our backyard and we came up with an idea…. Why not make two raised beds, one for flowers for Sue and one for vegetables for me? Now, we have what is called a “no-maintenance” garden (it’s not!) – covered in shrubs and trees so there is plenty of space to install these beds.
The next stage was design. The first point of contact was speaking with our Rotarian friends Chris and Kirsten. They have a pair of excellent raised beds that gave us some ideas. Next, I Googled “build a loft bed” and YouTuber “Gardener Stan” gave me all the do’s and don’ts of building one of these. Time to hit the road. Saturday morning we headed to the Spray Lake Center pool and after a session of warm water therapy we left the building and met Janet who works in the huge raised garden. There are two of them in the center’s front yard and they are gorgeous. Janet is not only the center’s gardener but also a fitness trainer…what a great job. She gave us a lot of excellent advice and suggested we go to Anything Grows, where the center gets their plants.
In “Anything That Grows” we meet Aaron. He helped us a lot and shared ideas on what flowers and vegetables to plant and when, the right soil mix and how to prevent weeds. All this talking was hard work, so Sue and I decided it was time for coffee. We headed to Good Earth and as we made our way to the café, we couldn’t help but notice the beautiful flower boxes along the sidewalk. These are located throughout Cochrane and are maintained by City of Cochrane maintenance staff.
Next time you’re wandering downtown, check them out.
The final stop was home appliances. My design was for two boxes that were four feet long, two feet wide, and two feet high. This will require 12 six-inch by one-inch by eight-foot boards, and two lengths of four-inch by four-inch lengths of pressure-treated lumber. The yard guys loaded the logs into the jeep and we went home.
The next morning the power tools came out and construction began. It didn’t take long to cut everything to size (measure twice…cut once!) and then put it together. This is where we are today. Aaron from Anything Grows suggested waiting until spring before we plant; So there is no rush to add soil. Now I have fall and winter to decide what to plant. Any thoughts?
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