Plans Have Changed ~

So we were putting together some costs for this weekends project of getting the beds together.

If we get the rototiller, that's $45 flat for the day. Then we have to buy top soil to mix in with the stuff that was rototilled... and that's about $6-$7 a bag. For three 5 x 10 beds, I'm thinking we are going to need a lot of bags. Or we can buy a ton of dirt for $45 that's been screened and mixed with a fertilizer, but with the rototilled dirt and a ton of dirt... that's way too much dirt for those beds... and I don't want a pile of dirt just laying around in my backyard. Out of the 4 kids, I'm sure 3 of them would try to bury the 4th one and that would just be all bad. This way I'm looking at $90 to get the beds ready.

So here's my though... why til at all? According to Bartholemew, the SFG God, we can use 6" of soil (of course, his special mix is what he recommends) in the beds and grow what we like without messing with the rototiller. So $45 for the ton of top-soil and then assemble the beds. I think one ton will do the trick and I can fill the beds 8 inches with that (if I did my gutinzas right --- goes-in-tas --- Beverly Hillbilly terminology for ya right there!) and I'll be done at half the cost and 3/4 less manual labor for Andy. I might help put the beds together, but you won't find me anywhere near the scene when he's got to wheelbarrow dirt from the truck to the backyard lol. I'll have some family emergency that I'll have to tend to, or sprain my ankle, or be in the middle of dying my hair or something... but I won't be out there!

According to my google calculations on tons to cubic feet to cubic yards... I'm going to need 0.33 ton of top-soil for each bed. Fancy that, I have 3 beds! So exactly a ton should fill my 5 x 10 beds 8" deep with top-soil. If not, I'll buy more. I still can't believe it's only $45 actually. I wonder if there's a catch in there somewhere that I don't know about.

So, that leaves me an extra $45 (from the rototiller that we aren't going to rent now) to get more garden stuff lol. Woo hoo! This next trip to Lowe's is already going to cost a fortune. We've got to buy a wheelbarrow, shovel, rake, sheers, a hose, and whatever other fancy gadgets I can find that I can't live without. Being that we just moved from an apt to a house, we don't already have this stuff. I'm probably going to get more peat pellets, but this time I'll just get the pellets b/c I already have the trays. Believe me, I've been looking on Craigslist for stuff too and I'm just not finding anything.

That reminds me... I need to call on that wheelbarrow I found yesterday!

More later...