Big Doin's Down on the Little Old Farm

I've been shopping for dirt this week and finally settled on Grimm's Blended Soil. Here's hiow they describe it...

"The ideal alternative to top soil. Blended Soil is a mixture of Grimm's Garden Mulch, sand loam, top soil, and manure. Excellent for vegetable gardens, lawns, and native plants. Perfect for those jobs where you need more dirt, such as berms, raised beds, flower beds or lawn areas.

Recommended Use: This soil is ready for direct planting. Plant directly into this mix and fertilize according to the plants nutritional requirements."

Does that not sound delicious? And I'm getting 7 cubic yards of the stuff! Woohoo!

Why so much dirt you might justifiably ask? Well I've got 2 new raised beds in the area that is the de-paved driveway. And since that area was so poor for growing tomatoes last year I decided to cheat my way to abundance by adding the beds and some rich soil to fill them. These 2 beds are 4 x 8 x 1 foot deep, 32 cubic feet. A yard of dirt is 27 cubic feet, so they will each take a little more than a yard.

The rest of the dirt will be used to fill the new box planters we built last weekend to go across the front of the yard. Our front yard is the same level as the street so folks and their dogs sometimes need a subtle reminder as to which side is their side, and which side is my side. We thought about a low fence, but never got around to building it.

When we built the raised beds for the driveway, before we placed them we had them stacked one on top of the other. We liked the way they looked and thought it might be cool to place a row of 2 foot high boxes along the front of the yard, planted with ornamental plants that would offer some privacy screening and a psychological barrier.

And since the most of the farm is dormant during the winter months this plan will offer passersby something nicer to look at than the mud bog.

There will be 3 squares and 2 rectangles, with a gap in between where I may train some climbing vines. Above is a look at one of the boxes. We haven't placed them just yet.

Needless to say I am very excited at the prospect of a big dump truck pulling up on Thursday and delivering a big pile of dirt. And of course I'll follow up with some more photos once they are in place and filled.