Reuse and Recycle

My husband is a hoarder. Not your everyday books, magazines, newspapers, broken pens, mementos-from-vacations, dust-collecting sort of hoarder (although there is a fair amount of what the French refer to as bibelot surrounding him at all times); no, he hoards something quite unique and most often useful:  wood.  Now, to be fair, we heat our house with a wood stove in winter, so stores of logs salvaged from the local Landscape Recycling Center, a neighbor's tree recently cut down and generously offered, another neighbor’s barter with offers of help to cut down a tree, are expected, necessary, even.  But he also hoards other wood:  planks and floor boards from a house he helped tear down; a gate from an old farm; wood doors from our local Preservation and Conservation Association; school desks from the remodel of a university building.

And, the sides from an old pickup truck.

I have resigned myself to backing my car up around the wood lining our driveway; I learned my lesson when I almost broke off the side view mirror. I sigh heavily when I look at our backyard and remember the outdoor parties of bygone days when people could actually sit on our cute brick retaining wall.  Now I can’t even see the brick retaining wall, as it’s completely covered in logs waiting to be cut and split.  But sometimes I’m thankful that my husband hoards wood.  It can be useful, especially when one is constructing a raised garden bed.  So when I asked my husband for his help, he came to the rescue with flying colors.  Well, one color, red, to be more precise.  And a touch of rustic pine (which got mixed in with our wood stove logs, but is not good for indoor wood burning).  Sometimes, I have to admit, he’s a genius.

This past Saturday we had a breakneck schedule.  First, go to that lovely plant sale at the co-op, where I picked up 27 plants.  Of course, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes:  beefsteak, cherry, yellow, with names like “Mortgage Lifter,” and “Golden Jubilee.” Then bell peppers, cucumbers, and two different kinds of melon. 

I stopped by the farmer’s market to get some more of my lovely asparagus, then sped home to pick up my son for his soccer game.  We dropped him off on our way with the trailer hooked up on the back of our wagon, headed 10 miles away to a landscape place for topsoil.

By the way, I love social media for problem-solving! When our local Landscape Recycling Center ran out of topsoil, I asked friends for suggestions via Facebook.  One friend pointed me to a very cost-efficient alternative.  By driving a few miles out of town, I got a generous cubic yard of topsoil mixed with compost—plenty for our 4’ x 8’ bed, topping off my herb basins, and enough left over for a second 2’ x 2’ bed—for around $33.00.  AND, the owner loaded us up so efficiently, we drove back and dropped off the trailer in time to catch the second half of our son’s game!

Removing the bark. He loves using a machete!

After lunch (and my son’s next event, the Tae Kwon Do belt test for purple belt!), my husband set up the beds, laying down landscape fabric, then pounding the truck sides into the ground and joining the ends to the pine logs from which he’d removed the bark.  

We grabbed shovels and filled up the bed, which reminds me of a little red wagon somehow.

I laid out my plants, then put them in the lovely, loose, black soil.  I watered each one carefully. 

Landscape fabric

Fitting the logs to the sides

Close-up of former truck sides

Finished product--little red wagon

Happy and watered

Then we set up the second bed with only pine log sides behind the peonies; I will choose plants for this bed later, and I think I will designate it as my bed for greens—lettuce, kale, possibly spinach.  I planted my herbs in my herb basins near the back door, and kept my fingers crossed that the dog would ignore all that lovely new dirt; fortunately, when she did start to dig, she chose a spot not yet planted.  We sat and drank lemonade on the front porch, thrilled at our productivity.  

In the middle of the night, I awoke to lightning and thunder.  To my friend who wrote, “ Is there anything better than the sound of steady rain when you just finished planting?”  I can now reply, “No, there isn’t!  How sweet the sound!”  I awakened on Mother’s Day to see my little plants already a little taller.