The Raised Bed

Hi there everyone 😀

Whilst there was plenty of rain in June there was also some sunshine and we made the absolute best of it while we were at home … putting in a fair few hours in the garden.

We’ve finally managed to replace the raised bed … and it has been a real labour of love.

Just as a reminder … this was the raised bed at its heyday … just bursting with colour …

… and you may remember a while ago I shared photos of it awaiting some major attention and looking decidedly worse for wear …

Our first step was to empty it of the plants we wanted to save … mainly foxgloves and verbena … everything else having been relocated a few years ago when we starting to get ready to replace it …

Next … we emptied it of soil …

… which we bagged up for reusing later …

… and broke it down and disposed of the old rotten wood …

Then the real hard work started. A full day, with the help of our good friend Tom, along with his saw, measuring, lifting and cutting and then cutting again …

The build was not without issues … poor quality sleepers which had to be replaced, measurements of the sleepers not being quite as they should be, wonky edging bricks and screws which didn’t screw as screws should …

Finally we got it all together …

… with just three screws that just would not go in any further and neither would they come out. Martin did a fabulous job dowelling the rest of the joints …

… and ended up having to grind off the heads of the screws that didn’t behave as they should.

Yay … we were done and very pleased with ourselves.

It rained overnight and the following morning this is what we found 🙈🙈🙈

Fortunately we were planning on painting it … but oak was certainly showing us that it can be tricky to work with.

We were now on the home straight and the next step was treating and painting. Two coats of wood preserver and two more of Cuprinol Garden Shades in Wild Thyme …

Then we were on to lining … we have literally done everything we can think of to try and make this bed last for the rest of our lives … I don’t want to have to replace it again …

We thought that was it … just refilling and planting left to do … but we had an idea … we’d both been inspired by the pillared climbing roses we’d seen on a recent visit to Powis Castle …

Back home, sitting in the garden in the sunshine … Martin said … we could put a pillar in one of the corners. Straight away I was sold on the idea. We had been planning on an obelisk of some description to give a bit of height … but they do take up quite a lot of space. A pillar sounded like a great idea. 

Even better … we knew another of our good friends had been hanging on to a couple of old pergola posts for us … in case we needed them to help rebuild the bed. One of them would be perfect for what we needed. I do love a bit of reusing and recycling. 

It was soon topped and tailed and painted … ready for fitting. We even managed to find the perfect cap to top it with …

We decided on the corner where we wanted to place it …

… and all that was left to do was to attach plenty of ‘u’ shaped pins to tie the stems into, before attaching the cap and fitting it to the bed …

I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. The next step is to fill it with soil and then I can start planting … I can’t wait 😛 

I already know what rose I think I want … just need to find a nice specimen …

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹