I don’t know about you, but for me, Pinterest-inspired projects rarely turn out as wonderful as I have pictured in my head.  I’m not sure if the cause of this Pinterest/Reality gap is exceptional photography, an inflated assessment of my abilities, minor execution error, or some combination of all of the above, but I continue to use the site to inspire my project list.  And good thing I do, because my latest Pinterest-inspired project turned out better than I could have imagined!

I’d been searching for a solution to a landscape challenge:  a cistern with a giant 30″ cover right as you walk in to the backyard.  Because the cistern tank is large and only a few inches below the surface, I couldn’t dig to plant anything substantial, and mowing around it was a nightmare.  Last year, I simply covered the area with landscape rock in what could only be described as a giant circle of boringness.  That just wouldn’t do.

Last winter, I happened across this photo on Pinterest from a blog called “Cabin Organic”:

It gave me an idea — what about doing raised beds in this pattern that around the cistern cover?

Even more exciting was the possibility it opened up for vegetable gardening, as it is one of the few (small) locations on the property that gets a decent amount of sun and is in easy reach of a garden hose.   The idea made it to the project list…where it sat all winter, spring, and summer — until Labor Day weekend.

As wonderful as a relaxing, sip-cold-drinks-and-do-nothing weekend sounds, I tend to get about an hour of “relaxing” in before I get antsy to DO something.  I love rolling up my sleeves and digging in to a project! Creating and building things is what brings me joy.  So Friday night of Labor Day weekend, I selected the raised bed project from my list and we got started.

While I was comparing prices of lumber (these projects always cost more than you think), my wonderful husband got to work planning the details of the bed construction, including the specific cuts and angles needed. Saturday we headed to the lumberyard with our materials list, and we started making progress in between other fun activities we had planned with family and friends for the holiday weekend. By dinnertime on Monday, we had our frames built:

We built the frames out of 2×6 rough cedar as my plan is to use these for vegetable gardening and I want to be sure no chemicals from treated lumber would affect the food we eat.  The ground slopes away from the cistern cover, so we cut the bottom section of each frame at a diagonal, leaving the total height of each bed from 6″-12″.

Next we set the frames in place and began the tedious process of making sure it seemed visually pleasing and leveling each frame.  If you know me, you know patience has never been my strong suit, so it took extra effort to get the leveling just right!

A couple of weeks passed before we made more progress — we were busy with work, friends, and family — but last weekend I buckled down to put on the finishing touches, starting with tacking chicken wire to the bottom of each frame to keep out the ornery rodents like moles and voles.

After solving for rodent prevention, it was time for weed prevention. I went with my old standby: cardboard.  Wet cardboard on the bottom of each bed suffocates any existing weeds or seeds for now, then breaks down over time.

Next up was the fun part…filling the beds!  While there are several DIY “recipes” online, I went for the easy solution and picked up 10 bags (20 cf total) of raised bed soil.  I’ll make sure to add organic material every year to keep the soil full of nutrients.

The final step was to expand the weed fabric and landscape rocks in the “pie slice” between each bed.  This gives me an easy way to access each bed to plant and harvest my veggies.  And with that, the project was finished!

Drumroll, please…

I am SO excited about how well it turned out!

Early this week I planted some cool-weather veggies like spinach, lettuce, and carrots.  Considering we’ll probably have a frost before harvest time, we now have another project on the list: cold frames.  I’ll just build those in-between planting the 300 spring bulbs I ordered and prepping the rest of the garden for winter.  No problem, right?

This spring and summer went way too fast for me.  Not enough time to work in the garden, not enough time to enjoy the garden, not enough time to get out and visit other gardens.   (This whole “work” thing really gets in the way of my hobby!) I suppose it’s been a tough season for the plants with the heat and drought, and they’re probably in need of a rest, so I will reluctantly accept that fall is here and winter is on its way.

We do still have some time before winter arrives, though, so I’m off to select the next garden project from my list.

Happy fall, my friends!