Too excited to be wordless this Wednesday

Have had an extremely productive morning constructing my new raised bed.  Got the idea from the #britishflowers twitter group (that typo came out as 'titter group',  quite like it) on Monday evening.  Rosie Ellis @bespokeconfetti suggested that a cut off builders dumpy bag filled with gritty soil would make a perfect home for growing larkspur.

Funnily enough, on my remaining concrete wasteland patch, I had a builders dumpy with the remains of a load of ballast in it.  Shifted the stacked slabs currently in that spot, dragged the dumpy into position and cut down the sides.  Now all I need to do is top it up with some gritty topsoil - still have the leftovers from my friend's previous donation in a heap at the bottom of the garden so will add grit, mix it up and chuck it in.  So pleased to be using up all these things which have been cluttering up the place!

A further ingredient I've been able to put to use are the blue bricks which have been sitting around in stacks since I lifted them out of the paved side area. They are now neatly providing an unmortared wall around this new planting pocket, and I think that they transform it from a bit of an eyesore into something quite presentable.

I can already imagine it billowing with larkspur in a few months time.  I will defeat slugs with organic pellets this year, following last year's onslaught on the dahlias.  They will not beat me in 2013.

So a massive THANKYOU again to Rosie for her brilliant idea!!!

Sledgehammer wielding maniac

The discussion on the Guardian Gardens forum about building raised beds galvanised me into action yesterday.  Managed to winkle out planks from dad's neatly stacked, and devilishly impenetrable wood salvage pile and sawed them to size ready to make raised beds.

On inspecting the patch where I planned to put them, I decided to have a go at breaking up the concrete area which they'd sit on, just to improve the drainage.  However, once I had a sledgehammer in my hand and even the thickest sections were quaking under its blows, I found myself possessed by a powerful urge to demolish and now have a respectable pile of rubble awaiting more trips to the local recycling centre to get rid of it.  I must have been a peculiar sight in my purple mini skirt and leggings, sporting goggles and belting ten bells out of poured concrete...

My labours mean that my raised beds now can just be one plank high as I can breakup the subsoil, put down a bed of the topsoil I recently inherited and put the frame straight onto that, then fill it with more soil.  24 square feet of flowerbed to the good!  I'm now inspired to keep on going and get all the poured concrete in that area up - it really would be a significant addition to the flower border and also will be much better for water run off if there is less impermeable surfacing in the garden.

A good afternoon's work!