Crafting My Bliss

It’s late January and 70 degrees in Maryland. Naturally, this means I get to spend time in the yard. I’d been anxiously waiting for a ‘good weather’ day so I could finally deal with the leaves in the yard. The plan was to place the leaves in my two raised garden beds. This helps with erosion, and the leaves would eventually break down into nutrient soil. 

First, I cleared out all the dead tomato and pepper plants. As I was tidying up the beds, I noticed one of the boards was loose. Upon further investigation, I learned the problem ran deeper than a loose board. The support beam in my bed had rotted. Thankfully, I’m quick on my feet. I grabbed my shovel and started removing the soil from that side of the bed. I still had some scrap wood, so I planned to replace the support. Once I started removing the dirt, I discovered a second rotted beam. At this point, I fully expected every beam in the bed to be rotten. I was correct. I knew right then the leaves would have to wait. I had to deal with repairing this bed. 

My plan was to remove all the dirt from the bed and then pull it out and rebuild it. My husband, being the sweet and supportive person he is, came outside to help me empty the bed. He immediately came up with a quicker, less labor-intensive fix to the problem. The rotting only happened two cedar panels up. It appeared the water wasn’t draining very well, so it pooled at that level. The rest of the beams above that level were still intact. We removed the second level and made the bed shorter. We installed L-brackets in place of the beams to avoid rotting issues in the future. 

Once we fixed that, we had to deal with the water drainage. I decided to amend the soil with the leaves in the yard. I also still had my Christmas tree I was saving to make mulch out of. I added several layers of branches from the tree and then covered the branches with soil. At this point, we were up against the sunset, and dinner still needed to be prepared and/or ordered. We finished filling the bed, and on the next warm day, I plan on topping off the beds with the leaves.

Gardening can be unpredictable. There will always be issues with something. Some issues are bigger than others, but they’re all manageable. The key is to keep a level head and work through the problem. For every issue you encounter, there are several people out there who’ve experienced the same thing and have different fixes. The internet is a huge resource. Staff at garden centers are another. It’d be nice to be able to fix or figure things out in the moment, but patience is key. Sometimes it might take a whole day to come up with a solution. When you’re doing your own landscaping, it’s important to remain flexible because things don’t always turn out the way you imagine. It’s all an experiment and an opportunity to learn. Plus, in the end, there’s something fulfilling about enjoying your finished product. You know what it took to complete your project, and that makes you love and appreciate it even more. 

“The fruit of your own hard work is the sweetest.” – Deepika Padukone