FBF in HMB! Part 1

This is Jen, sister of Melissa and daughter of Carol. I've long been inspired by their work chronicled here on the Fat Bottom Farm (FBF) blog, but then they recommended I read a few Michael Pollan books during my current state of unemployment. So now inspiration, information, and idle hands have combined with a genetic predisposition to garden and I'm happy to say that FBF has expanded to Half Moon Bay, CA. At least, that's the plan....we have yet to see if the green thumb still works (it's been pretty pink and manicured for a long time).

My husband, Leon, and I have a bit of a challenge with gardening because our dogs will jump up to about 2.5', and if there is food involved, they will eat it or at least chew it. So, we decided upon doing a raised box garden with the added benefit of being a garden at waist height (i.e., much less back pain). We decided the best place with sunshine and a water source was along the west side of our house on top of a gravel drainage area.

Having measured and put together plans on Excel (I'm a dork, I know, but I use Excel like my own version of Autocad making each cell a 4"x4" square), we ordered pressure-treated Douglas Fir for the supports, and hardwood redwood for the boxes themselves.

Leon started on the supports last weekend while I was up at Lake Owyhee for Mothers' Day Weekend. He made great progress!

Then on Monday, I started making the workbench and compost bin. We have the coolest saw! Makes things a lot easier...

I finished off the workbench with Leon's help cutting the plywood shelf and base for the marble top. I know it may seem like an odd thing to have a marble-topped workbench, but it was a leftover piece from our house that we've been saving for 4 years.

And here's the finished product with the compost bin. Yay!


Leon finished up the support framework for the boxes. This is the completed structural support from the workbench looking back towards the gate:


This is the completed structural support looking from the gate back towards the workbench:

And then we installed our first box! A satisfying finish to a long day.