This Year's Project

It took two days, but I finally got the wicking beds finished.  I'm sore and ended up taking a 3-hour nap today, but I think it was worth it.  It looks great.  Here's what the project looks like so far.  Next week I'll start planting in the beds.  I have a lot more garden clean up to do as usual, but the work I did this week will eliminate a lot of the work I have to do every spring to loosen the soil and remove the weeds from this bed.  I also think it looks a lot nicer considering the neighbors and anyone walking by the house can see it.  The whole time I was working, the neighbor was out taking down his old fence.  Just two neighbors doing hard manual labor together!  

The old set up.  It worked...sorta, but didn't look great and was always invaded by weeds.  

Step 1: Build the box.  I built these in two parts in the driveway, then carried them over before finishing the box.

Step 2: Dig the hole and fit the box into it.  

Step 3: Line the holes with heavy-duty plastic and wind the drainage tile around in the hole.  The bricks are to hold everything in place until the drainage tile keeps it's shape   

Step 4: The pea gravel has arrived.  1.5 cubic yards of it.  

One box filled, the second box was full of water from a week's worth of rain so it took a while to drain it

Step 5: Here comes the soil and here comes the "helpers"

Gravel is done for both boxes

Step 6: Put in the drains to keep water in the box from getting too full 

Step 7: landscaping fabric to keep the gravel and soil seperate

Step 8: Fill the boxes with soil

Step 9: Added extra gravel between the house and the boxes to keep the weeds at bay

Step 10: Used some extra soil to plant new grass seed next to the beds.