This past Wednesday, I spent the day building and finishing raised bed planters for my lovely wife Jennifer. They are conveniently tall, waist high on me, and have a fairly ingenious method of keeping the garden plants watered efficiently and for a prolonged period of time. Never heard of subterranean irrigation planters? No problem...here's how I built them:
First we started with the framing built from 2X10's triple stacked and nailed together. That gives us 27" of height to the top edge. I mounded the underlying dirt to offer some additional height. No more bending over to pull weeds which is the chore we dread the most with gardening!
Once the horse shoe shape of the boxes was completed, I had 5 yards of super blend garden soil dropped off by Mazzola's. This mix was worth every penny and has the nutrients our plants need to thrive. Something our old used and abused garden couldn't supply.
I then added metal fencing stakes to the corners. We've dealt with the aggravation of an endless supply of hungry groundhogs for years. Their presence infects the entire street so fencing is a must, even at this height off the ground.
Next, I cut 6 mil construction grade plastic to length. This was folded to form a 4ply pool liner for the interior bottom of the planter. The oversized cut was then stapled into place around the perimeter. The extra material ensures that it won't get too taunt and leak.
Plenty of room for the extra material to flatten out and unwrinkle without stressing the plastic material too much.
My old craftsman stapler decided to die on me and I couldn't be happier. Hated that thing! Plus, it gave me an excuse to buy a Black & Decker Powershot nailer/stapler. The fact that the handle drives the mechanism in the front rather than the back is reason enough to pitch the older design!
Next up is the perforated irrigation tubes. Thankfully, because this stuff is way overpriced and expensive, I only needed one roll. It was cut in such a way as to triple back on itself inside the liner created by the plastic.
I added some additional lengths of white pvc to fill some of the voids created by the pipe turning within the confined area of the base. The sock that covers the pipe and acts as a silt screen were pulled and then knotted at the ends of the pipe.
I then carefully cut a hole and inserted pvc conduit. This is the "fill tube" that will allow the water to fill the cavities and voids supported and created by the irrigation tubing coiled in the base.
Then, heavy duty, premium quality landscape fabric was stapled into place. This creates an additional barrier (hopefully a good one) separating the soil / silt from filling the tubes. We want the cavities to remain intact so water can fill them or there is no point in this exercise!
The PowerShot stapler made quick work of securing the fabric in place.
At that point, it was muscle time. It took a LONG time and many, many, many shovels to transport the soil from the pile into the boxes. When it was all over, I was TIRED! At this point, you'd think that the soiling filling is done, but not quite! It is aquifer filling time!
Each long bed required about 10 minutes of water running at high to be filled. Our "filled" indication was water spilling from the first seam of wood panels. This meant it was overflowing the tub that was created. Another indicator was the San Andreas fault that was stretching from end to end down the middle of the bed of dirt. Or, even worse...the 4" of dirt settling! LOL! This was a science experiment in action...
Once the dirt was refilled and packed firm with my hands, I gave the wifey the green light to start planting. I felt bad, it was extremely hot and there was no shade, but she planted away and every one of them found a place to grow.
So, here's the benefit of this arrangement...you don't have to water but once every month or so. You don't have to deal with evaporation either. The aquifer you created in the bottom of the planters will keep the soil most from the bottom up. As the plants mature, they'll grow roots to meet somewhere in the middle row of wood and feed themselves. I tested our reservoirs last night after they had a few hours to sit and all of them shown 4-5" of water on the dip stick.
As I said before, I ordered 5 yards of soil. I have about 3/4 of a yard remaining. I'm guessing that over the course of the next several weeks...we'll have to top off the planters as the soil settles.
THE CHICKENS-
To save me a ton of work, I chose to link to the write up on backyardchickens rather than repost everything. You can visit the post by clicking here:
Our Family's Coop Mahal In this link and post you'll see the step by step process of The Chicken Coop Mahal's construction in our backyard.
Before you ask, yes...chickens are legal in our city. Technically and thankfully, there are no zoning ordinances outlawing them or their quantity, but only ordinances governing noise and smell. I spoke with the law director and according to our city's laws we can have cockerels or pullets and as many as we like as long as they are kept clean and orderly. Yes, that means we can have roosters (tons of them) and as long as they crow after 7am and not after 10pm...we're good to go. Woohoo! I wonder how my neighbors will like the robust cooing of nature's bravado?! LOL! I bet that lovely lullaby could drown out any possibility of hearing slamming car doors, ya think?!
Relax guys, we're not getting roosters! Just pulling your chain! Hehehhehehe!
We decided to have chickens for a bunch of reasons, but mostly:
- Pets for the family to enjoy (we've got allergies, so dogs and cats are out)
- Healthy Natural Eggs (we all know this one)
- Great Fertilizer (does a great job of completing the cycle)
The birds we chose, because my good friend Greg did all the research, knows a heck of a lot more than we do about this and was generous enough to provide us the fertilized eggs and incubators for hatching, were New Hampshire's. They are a great dual purpose breed that produces big brown eggs and can provide decent meat as well. They were bred to mature faster, produce eggs quicker and are hardy for our climate. They also come (for the most part) with an inherent good disposition. Some birds are down right brutal and are born with bad attitudes, these guys, however are not known for being mean. So...
With the help of our neighbors, because we had an early hatching, we were blessed with 14 New Hampshire chicks this past weekend. The Gricar's played baby sitter while we visited camp with the Britt's. I figured we'd come home from camp to a few eggs pipped or maybe even a couple birds fluffing out in the incubator, but surprisingly that began the morning of the day we were to leave for camp! They began to hatch at 20 days instead of 21-25 as I've read. These little guys were ready for sure!
Now they're only 4 days old, but already they have wing tip feathers forming and little bumps where their tail feathers are starting to grow...Amazing! They have a group attitude and then individual traits that separate their behavior from the rest. We've got two chicks that are yellow-white, bigger than the rest and demonstrating alpha-male behavior. These two will be making good soup in only a month or so! LOL! I'll try to make regular posts to update you on their growth and funny behavior.
Our flock of 5 New Hampshire hens has been expanded to 15 (14 hens, one suspected rooster). We've now got an assortment of from around the globe including barred rocks, black australorps, and americanas. Two of the Americanas, known by many names auracanas / easter eggers, are now laying blue eggs. I'm hoping the other two might lay some green / jade colored ones. The barred rocks and australorps will lay big brown eggs eventually, likely within the next couple weeks. 
