Work Started on Saturday

We made a start to laying out the individual raised beds (seen at left) for the Southwestern Community Garden on Saturday. In this post, I'm going to describe the work, so that anyone who wants to work in the garden can pick up where we left off. With the approaching holidays, it is getting increasingly difficult to schedule a joint work time. If you do plan to work, however, shoot everyone an email to see if someone wants to join you.

We laid out two raised beds. Here is the construction method. The beds are approximately 8' x 8'. Debbie made a black plastic template (seen below) based on the first bed, that can be used to make the others. We left it in the first bed.

1. Build the first course by laying a double-row of wavy-sided pavers in a square around the template. Leave a small space between the pavers to allow for rebar to be added between them later. The front edge of the square should line up with the white line that demarcates the area for the individual beds. You may need to level the pavers with extra dirt (or dirt removal).
   
2. Build the second course of the bed enclosure using cinder blocks.
3. Lay plastic sheeting behind the bed, using the bed wall to hold down one edge, and the extra limestone to hold down the other edge.
4. Leave a 4 foot path between each bed.
5. Call Bob Mathis for more specific or additional instructions.

Below are some illustrations from the work in progress on Saturday. Thanks to Bob, Jeanette, Gavin (and family), and Roman for helping out. And if any of you can explain this more clearly, please feel free to comment on this post!

Step 1: Starting the first bed












Step 1: Detail of space between the pavers














Step 2: Detail of Second Course














Step 3: Plastic sheeting














Step 4: Path














Repeat Step 1: Laying the First Course for the Second Bed, with template.