Rebuilding the Last Raised Bed. 12.21.21

Today I laid down a mole barrier, and rebuilt the raised bed that Ms. amd Mr. Mole destroyed in late summer. I had emptied the soil earlier, which I used for filling the newest raised beds. Today I smoothed the base ground a bit more. I think what happened was part of the original mole barrier was chicken wire, which rusted away. There is still galvanized hardware cloth in place. The moles had undermined the corner supports, which splayed outwards, then the boards collapsed and I no longer had a tidy and functioning raised bed. The base is galvanized deer fencing, with a second layer of plastic deer fencing. These were previously used around trees, so nothing new was needed and I didn't have to dispose of those used fencing.

Around the sides, later I will put down walkways, and the mole barrier overlap wont show any more. The rebar that runs through the cement corners was two feet long, so only 6 inches into the ground. the new rebar is 4 feet long, so 2 1/2 feet into the ground. That should help anchor the corners better. After installing the lower two layers of cement corners and boards, I ran wire from rebar to rebar, to tighten them a little more against splaying outwards too.

Then I added the top layer of cement corners and boards. The wires will not show at all and wont be in the way.

Now all that remains is a sheet-plastic liner on the sides, and fill again with soil. The liner is meant to reduce contact between the boards and soil to a minimum. I can get that started this week, and gradually fill, taking as long a time as I want. This bed wont be planted until May or June, although I'd like to plant a cover crop or cool weather stuff like spinach lettuce, radishes, in Feb or March.