Decided there WAS something to do with the LX yesterday. We have some raised garden beds made by VegePod (Aussie company) that the missus picked up for about 20% of the retail price about 4 years ago as part of our landscaping and gardening project at the time. We filled them with a pine mulch mix that’s loaded with sand, and they did pretty good since.
But they have settled and shifted a bit (and certainly lasted a lot longer than I thought we’d use them) so the first step was to level them again. That didn’t take too long because I actually just finished the original installation the way I should have done it to start with. The soil was extremely dry and super light, so the leveling was quick and easy.
The problem was that the hardware is all nylon in the boxes, not to mention completely buried, so I didn’t feel safe to lift them to dump them. So I shoveled. Then I shoveled some more. I was screening the soil and upgrading it while mixing with some compost that we’ve accumulated from 35 chickens who are all named after female TV personalities. One is a very confused bird, though and thinks she’s a people. She’s EXTREMELY jealous of the other girls if I pick them up and will peck me on the back of my legs. Remember when I said I wanted 6 birds? The missus did a lot of chicken math since then and is convinced they’re paying for their feed and supplies with the eggs she sells to a local convenience store. I won’t disappoint her otherwise because she enjoys them as much as I do. Happy wife, happy life.
I digress, but pretty much, I found that each of the large planters takes exactly two FULL buckets of soil to fill them. I slowly came to the realization that I was going to have to shovel every ounce of the soil a minimum of 3 times. Out of the planter into the bucket, onto the screen with an equal amount of composting, then back into the bucket to put back in the planter. Thank goodness the soil was drier than a popcorn fart and super light and very soft and loose. I ended up handling 6 bucket loads (54” bucket) by shovel, while the LX sat and smiled at me.
So, new project: raise the screen so I can dump soil on it with the LX and then pick it back up the same way. Might not fill the bucket quite as well, but I won’t have to shovel nearly as much. Nothing to be done for getting it out of the planters, but all the steps in between can certainly be improved. I have a tractor to minimize the shoveling, not sit and watch while I do it.
