In celebration of Earth Day, I decided to build raised beds for my intended vegetable gardens. The raised beds should deter the bunnies who are slowly taking over my entire property, and also are a very pleasant alternative to digging up and tilling a section of my lawn o’ weeds. Me and shovels are not very good friends.
The thing is, wood is expensive! I popped by the hardware store yesterday to price lumber and nearly choked. But there is one advantage to living on a kind of run-down acreage that the owners have used as a sort of garbage dump for the last 20 years – large, miscellaneous piles of wood.
So after digging through 2 or 3 piles this morning (whilst wearing rubber dishwashing gloves, since those are the only kind I own), dropping some wood on my feet while screeching in terror (centipedes) I found enough pieces of lumber that were close enough in size to one another (me = also not friends with saws) and I made two raised beds, with my own two citified hands.
Voila!
Two raised beds – one is 8’X4′ and the other is 6’X4′. Both are about a foot deep. All they cost me to build was $6.00 for a package of screws and some time. Can’t beat that!
I placed them on the South side of the house where they will get the most sun and the least amount of foot /dog traffic.
Tweed thought I was crazy. Why was I spending all morning building Sun-Nap-Boxes for him?
Not that he was complaining. He lounged around in the boxes as I worked around him, and he was perfectly content.
He even fell asleep. I think this is the first time in my life I have seen Tweed fall asleep outside.
(sorry for the shitty photo; I had to sneak up on him to get it)
Another thing I never thought I’d see in my lifetime is the unlikely alliance of Tweed and TWooie. Yesterday, they decided they were BFFs and played – I mean actually *played* like two normal dogs. They did zoomies, they played bitey face, they wrestled … I probably should have stopped it because Tweed should be resting, but really it was just a magical event. Tweed doesn’t really play with other dogs, and TWooie is anything but normal, period.
I like you now. I’m going to kiss you.
Blech.
TWooie continues to unwind and while he may never be a totally “normal” dog, he’s really coming along. Like for example – I have taught him the joys of clicker training, and recently taught him to stand on a box. This is huge for the TWoo – I don’t think anyone has ever taught him a new behaviour in a pleasant way, and he was so flippin’ happy to try it for me (or for cookies, whatever). I couldn’t get him OFF the box after that!
Then he chewed through my bedroom blinds when I left him inside to take Tweed for a short on leash walk. *sigh*
But then I got up the other morning and saw he had helped himself to several toys from the basket and piled them on his dog bed. Previous to this, I couldn’t even get him to chew a bone unless I handed it to him directly. So clearly, he is starting to relax, even if it’s mostly in private.
Oh TWooie, if only I knew what your life was like before you joined our crew.
Leave me alone, I’m napping near my BFF.
I am completely smitten with The TWoo. Now that he trusts me, he has stopped chomping me altogether, even when he is excited or when I make him do something he doesn’t care for. He is still a shit to other dogs though. And he is not a fan of Dexter either, whom he finds extremely pesty. As do I, incidentally. The teenage phase is so very trying.
What are you doing? What’s that? Can I play? Do you need some help? Why can’t I eat the screws? Whaddaya mean don’t chew on the drill? I’m not standing on your wood. What’s in your pocket? What about your hand? What are you doing anyway? Wanna play?
“Go AWAY Dexter” is the most commonly heard phrase in this household lately.
Why’d you get that stupid puppy anyway?
Anyway, we are enjoying the farm life… mostly. I have to post and run, as there are 17 holes in the horse paddock I have to fill now. Piper spent the last two days digging up the mystery magical creatures she believes lives under the hog fuel (that’s like mulch) and it’s a mess out there.
We hope you are enjoying Earth Day as much as we are.
Is Earth Day like Cookies For TWooie Day?
Laura L says
Beautiful pictures as always, even Tweed sleeping outside!
Kerry says
Is Twooie keeping that name or is it temporary until you get to know him better?
BTW, love Tweed napping while you work outside. My Dingle used to love to keep me company in the garden.
The Food Lady says
“Is Twooie keeping that name or is it temporary until you get to know him better?”
Nope TWooie is his name. He loves it, because it sounds happy. And he is very responsive to it!
TheRedQueen says
Since Twooie is so fat, it must have always been Cookies for Twooie day before…:) My Ripley likes the sound of this new holiday, though he’s changing it to “Cookies for Rip Day”.
PS Rip also wants to know how he can persuade his mom to build him some Sun-nap-boxes, they look most comfortable!
Michelle says
Wow, you’re ALL making great progress towards being countrified! Do you have some lovely old, decomposed horse manure piles around there to fill your raised beds with? That would be perfect (and free).
Kat says
Kisses (sloppy ones) to the whole crew! I wuv it! Keep on wooing!
Love,
Kat
Owned by Piedmont, Gideon and Sammy
Lauren says
Ive been following your blog for a couple of months now and I have to say that I cant get enough of it. Your commentary is down right hilarious! And those dogs … I just fall head over heels for them each time I read the blog. They are absolutely adorable, as if you didnt already know this.
Those pictures of Tweed are too precious. I love the one of his lil head peaking over the piece of wood.
Cookies and Kisses from me and my two Aussies, Bailey and Maggie.
Erin says
Yay for Twooie settling in!
Carole says
Great idea! We built our raised beds out of the gazillion cinder blocks that were just lying around our place. I have been amazed at the amount of produce I can grow in such small spaces and have never had a wildlife problem. Garden green peppers and tomatoes are so much better than store-bought.
Karen Crook says
Hello FL,
Great photos and story as always.
I don’t know a thing about dog training (not hard to tell by the behavior of my dogs) but I am a Master Gardener here in Salt Lake City. Your raised beds will be great. If I could suggest a soil mixture to fill them with that is guaranteed to bring wonderful results I would use “Mel’s Mix”. It is a mixture designed by the guy that developed “Square Foot Gardening”. You can check their website. The mixture is 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost, and 1/3 peat moss by volume. I would also suggest you lay down a thick layer of wet newspaper to help keep the weeds down and over that you could put down some chicken wire to keep the rabbits and gophers, etc. from tunneling up and eating your veggies. Then the Mel’s mix on top of that. It only really needs to be about 6 inches deep unless you are growing root vegetables like carrots.
Also, there is another method called Lasagna Gardening that basically layers peat moss, manure, chopped leaves, cut grass, and compost that works well too.
Happy Gardening!
Shasta says
So, did I miss something, or is Mr. Twoo a permanent part of your household now? Cuz he totally seems like he’s a fit!
Good on you for the raised beds. I am EXCEPTIONALLY pleased to hear of your ingenuity and frugality in only paying $6 for them. Now that is an Earth Day accomplishment to be proud of! Can’t wait to hear how your garden grows this summer. My dogs like to poke their noses in my dirt and help me de-grub my beds…so helpful they are.
Joe says
Instructions for how to build a raised flower bed on Ree Drummond’s site.
Abigail says
I’m sooooo (can I use HTML here?) happy to see that Twooie is settling in at last! You’ll turn him into a normal dog yet. Or, as normal as any of TFL’s dogs can be…
Amy says
I do believe it’s time to change the name of the blog from “3 Woofs and a Woo” to “4 Woofs and a Woo” or “3 Woofs and T-Woo” (or some other clever variation). You can’t possibly give that dog up now. He’s part of the family for sure. I’ve been following your blog for about a year now and I never get tired of it. I look forward to seeing photos of your furbabies and your witty commentary. Great job on the gardening boxes/sun nap beds.
RachelB says
That is a thoroughly heart-warming picture of TWooie and Tweed having kissyface time. Who knew?
Karen says
Great post:) Glad that you are so frugal with your box building, (a gal after my own heart) and no doubt there are some mounds of well rotted horse manure somewhere on the property for you to fill them with. That WILL involve work with a shovel though!
Hope the woofs and woos don’t think you have made them two nice sandboxes. Our two collies like to bounce around, wrestle and dig in a freshly rototilled plot that we have, so when it does get planted, it will have to be fenced for a while.
Look forward to hearing how your garden is growing. At our place we planted fruit trees for Earth Day.
julie says
Great post, and a wonderful beginning of my morning as usual. :)
Arwen Lune says
Big old d’awwwww moment for Twoo settling in and starting to figure out what being a dog is all about. Lovely to hear.
Leila says
My only advice to the square foot gardening is invest in some chicken wire. You’d be surprised how high rabbits will jump and climb for a choice morsel. I should know. The itty-bitty-witty baby bunnies mowed through our garden without a care in the world whilst their parents said thank you for making their lives easy. sigh.
As always the tribe is looking amazing. Excellent job on Twoo’s rehab.
Rebecca says
I imagine that Woo might actually become a productive member of the family, in regards to potential wabbits in the garden. The only danger is that he might become too productive and dig it up in pursuit of furry garden eaters.
Saboru Kun says
Truly wonderful blog…I’ve added you to my blog roll so others can enjoy the adventures of 3 Woofs & A Woo. :D
Adrienne says
Love the recycling!
I wonder why grass-in-a-box is so much more comfortable to Tweed than grass-out-of-the-box? Less breeze? Seems more secure? Very cute though. Love the pics of him snoozing!
Quinn says
I agree with someone else – if Twooie stays (and I hope he does…he’s gorgeous and I love hearing about his progress) this place might have to be “4 Woofs and a Woo” or “3 Woofs and a Woo – and a Twooie, too”
xD
Carol says
3 Woofs and a Woo X Twoo
riosmom says
3 Woofs and 2 Woos
Quinn says
It could look something like this!
http://i43.tinypic.com/sopfyr.jpg
riosmom says
Except Twooie should be under the Woo!
Quinn says
http://i42.tinypic.com/ao8755.jpg
Liiiike this? 8D?
Michelle says
I am thinking about doing some raised beds myself. Doesn’t look too hard to do, you’ll have to keep us posted on how well they work at keeping the bunnies out.