pressure treated landscaping timbers which i got for $2 each [why? idk. crazy hdep sale]
my new toy! with eric's sad abused and bent hand saw under some lumber...
very slow learning curve
part of my layout
my first attempt at hand tilling with this fucking thing. in the long run it will be very convenient to mix in topsoil, but i should have just rented a damn rototiller. which i would have transported..in my mini cooper. after another 3 hours of work though, i have the entire frame of one planter set into the ground and a pretty decent border working its way inwards. only problem was my shoulder was pretty done and i had filled up 2 trashcans. brookhaven however, likes to pick up yard waste in clear plastic garbage bags [wtf?] or paper brown yardwaste bags. both of which i know are horribly wasteful and environmentally hazardous/detrimental/bad rah rah rah...but composting isnt looked too kindly upon in a city. or in a relatively small yard like ours. the end.
reader's digest summary: bought lumber, sawed lumber, hauled lumber, dug up grass, hurt self, gave up until... next weekend or next sunny evening.
I have another similar post with similar pictures of my similar yard in my posting pipeline. I'm waiting for a sunny morning to take really good pics.
ReplyDeleteA tip, just use a shovel to dig up the sod. Last year I tried using a hoe but it pulls up the sod in too small chunks and is more work. Then some of the grass/weeds grew back anyway. This year it went much more smoothly. I dug up the sod with a shovel, piled it next to the bed, then dug up and loosened more soil underneath, removing roots of an old tree stump along the way, then shook off some of the soil from the sod chunks and put it back. Finally, I mixed in the store bought garden soil.
I don't want to rent a roto-tiller or sod cutter either because transporting it is a problem for me. I have a ford focus.
Kudos for using a circular saw though! Those things scare me! I feel like they are designed for bigger hands and I just can't get a good grip on them.
good advice with the shovel. i was using it to dig out and fling cat poo behind a bush, but i could actually use it to ...dig. um the circular saw is a bit heavy and awkward but def 100x easier than using our brokeass hand saw.
ReplyDelete