the hard work is done.....for now

If you've been around for a while, you may recall that last summer

we did a little yard work☺

You can read a little about it here

Essentially, we completely started over with our yard.

The only section that we didn't complete was this one

Unfinished raised bed area - Aug 2012

This is the area we tackled this year.

So, on Mother's Day weekend we started....

Honey made 4 trips with this bad boy

and we ended up with 20 yards of gravel.

This is May 11 and you will notice there are no leaves...any where:(

Let me tell you that is a lot of gravel folks☺

Well I shoveled and shoveled (and no, Honey doesn't shovel).

I have had very bad luck with delivered bulk top soil,

 it always seems to be really poor quality,

as in ~ nothing will grow:(

so for these beds we went with a mix of "garden soil" and "potting soil" in the bags

so the next day Honey went and got the first of the soil.

48 - 2cu ft bags. (those puppies are heavy when they are wet)

I shoveled all weekend and each day after work except this day

Then on the next weekend this happened

May 18th Snowfall 2013

I decided to take a break from shoveling gravel:(

By the 21st I had enough of the stuff moved to start putting in the beds, a couple at a time.

(Honey built the beds, they are 2ft x 8ft☺)

(I used a total of 50 bags of garden soil and 20 - 2cu ft bags of potting soil 

for the 10 beds)

May 21st and still no leaves:(

Still shoveling...and by May 25th, I had almost all of the boxes in.

You can start seeing a little green out there in the trees if you look real close:)

This area is pretty large. It's about 53 ft wide and 40 ft deep.

My goal was to have the beds ready to plant by Memorial Day weekend

and I DID!

And, as a side note (since this post isn't long enough already)

the weather was THE. MOST. GORGEOUS. weather we have had

on a holiday weekend since I came to Alaska  in 1992.

Nearly 80° and nothing but sun for close to a week☺

Technically all of the gravel wasn't spread until today,

and there is still a little pile that is going to be spread on the outside of the patio area

but that can be done a little at a time over the rest of the summer.

Still waiting for the grass to green up but the trees have finally leafed out☺

Behind the tree in the middle you can just see part of another box.

There is another just like it behind it.

There will be a total of 6 of those beds (4ft x 8ft)

but I am totally done hauling dirt for this year,

so those will go in NEXT year.

This year we still have logs to varnish, steps to rebuild and 

a front door  to repaint etc, etc. 

But first, I have two weeks of  The YOJP to catch up on

and I have some different colors in mind for a new batch of these beads.

It is time to get my craft on!