The third vegetable bed

It was a dry day on saturday, so we spent the whole afternoon in the garden digging and weeding.

Mr dug the third raised vegetable bed and did a very good job too managing to get most of it done in a matter of hours. He cut the grass first to make the digging easier (a 12'x3' bed is a big job).

As you probably can't tell from the first picture, it is very hard work and the digging is actually quite methodical (I would have just dug in any old fashion). Mr used the "single digging" method. It would be better to use a spade with a wooden handle and wear gloves to avoid tearing your palms to shreds.

So after marking out the bed, cutting the grass, doing the single digging, the next stage was to put the gravel boards down (which we used as edging). The longer 12' edges were made from two 6' boards hammered together with a shorter off-cut. The shorter 3' edges were ingeniously made from one 6' board cut in half (which is why we chose 12'x3'). The boards were joined at the corners by posts about 6" long driven into the ground by a mallet. After trialling different methods of putting the boards in on the first two beds, Mr settled on nailing the posts to each end of the longer boards, hammering them into the ground and then nailing the shorter boards. The next step will be to mix in the manure and it is pretty much ready for planting (we think). Luckily Mr had had two chances with the other two beds - his dad came over and taught him the art of digging. Very impressive it was too!