When you have been reading this blog it will not come as a surprise I have bought and assembled two raised beds, right?
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| Blumfeldt planter |
Often I have complained about my heavy clay, which gets waterlogged in winter and turns into something most resembling concrete in summer.
The strategy behind Hunky Dory was to spend as little money on it as possible, so I sow seeds, I recycle, upcycle and cycle to friend's gardens to pick up free seedlings. But lately the impossibility to get a spade into my soil was irritating me, not in the least because I saw my cherished seedlings suffer, struggle and sometimes perish. Okay, so we've had an unusually dry spring and summer so far, but all the signs are that this is a state of affairs that we will have to get used to.
So I looked at raised beds, that is to say, I realised when I was at the diy shop I do not like straight lines, at all. Besides, those planks are bloody heavy, and I am not strong.
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| First one done |
There are no straight lines in nature, you see. They go against the grain, well against mine anyway. Research led me to Berlin, you must love the internet, to Germany from my easy chair. I ordered a Blumfeldt metal planter, 160x80cm, which would arrive in 'between now and in 7 days', using DPD. Perhaps folks in Germany take a week off to wait for their stuff, because no track&trace possible. I wasn't going to sit at home for a week, dogs need to be walked, food has to be bought, veg needs to be watered you know? It turned out that was just as well, because DPD did not even attempt to deliver to my home, they dropped it off at a delivery point 3 km away.
Anyway, long story short the tiny woman there heaved the flat pack into the back of my car (she was strong!) from where I dragged it into my wheelbarrow with a great deal of swearing, and opened it with trepidation. Hm. It looked straightforward enough, 2 lengths of nuts, and bolts, plus rings. It also turned out to be very high, much higher than I had counted on. So I decided on the spot to turn it into two planters, yay, two for the price of one! It was very easy, really, even for a diy dummy like me, except instead of having a lot of leftover nuts and bolts (every time I attempted an IKEA) I now had 6 too few. Or 6 holes too many. So glad I could not find the courage to clear out my shed, yet! I found 6 different gauge bolts, and they all fit those holes, hallelujah.
To save more money, I chucked the old tired strawberry plants I dug up into the bottom of the planters. That means I had to buy less bags of garden soil. All the same, one planter took 320 litres of soil. Two planters...you get my drift. Pigs will have flown three loop-de-loops over my greenhouse by now...save money..., right.
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| So happy I did this! |
Still. I have planted some lovelies in those planters and I have given my neighbours something to talk about. Two birds with one stone!
Read more about Hunky Dory on Instagram@songsmith2962 and Pixelfed@DutchDeltaWoman . Have a lovely weekend!
