before and after: The raised bed area

It is raining out today. A light but perseverent mist that is bathing all the vegetables and flowers that are enjoying it as much as I enjoyed the sprinkler as a child on a hot summer day in the city.
It is the perfect day to fish a "before and after" story out of the photo tank on my desktop.
It was hard to choose one out of so many but the most rewarding project was the one that now produces Food! And it is also the project everyone chipped in on! So here it goes.

Crops in a Castle..... because our tiny orchard stands where the Castle of Foce once stood.
It was a slopey and sloppy piece of land full, and I mean full of rocks. BIG ONES.
Among many challenges, levelling off the land, was probably the most blistering experience of my life.
Here is one example. The raised bed area as it once was and now is:

This is what happened in between:
Step one. DIG - DIG - DIG
Step two. Get all the weeds out of the land.
Step three. Drag away all the extra earth
Step four. Level it out with a rake and heaps of patience.

At that point it began to look like this:
Wow, there was a wall back there!

Yes I agree, it looks even more discomforting.
But it looks prettier with Patsy Baby (Mom) and Papà smiling at you.

I realized at this point that the level was really high compared to the main part of the garden so I decided to split it two separate levels.

Levels need steps and walls to contain the earth. Get creative and recycle.

First two steps are made with wood beams from an old building: Recycled.

They weren't enough so I built the missing step with some left over bricks and cement: Recycled
Then I needed one step for access to the second level. Mom suggested some concrete rectangular garden containers she no longer used and small step in the centre. It worked perfectly.

Massimo then made the raised beds. God bless his hands.

TIP: make the beds on the premises, they are way too heavy to carry after! We made that mistake and it still hurts to even think about it.
TIP: if you are levelling out land don't throw out the extra earth. Sieve it and you'll see it will come in handy sooner or later. All the earth I removed from this area was used to fill the raised beds.
TIP: The perfect width for a raised bed is double the length from your wrist to your armpit. Our arms are all very different. Make then to fit your size perfectly and you won't regret it.

Here is the finished view from above

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Mind you, it took two weeks to level the land and another two for the steps.
A week end for the raised bed, another week end to fill them.
But there is now endless time in the future to plant crops and enjoy this part of the garden.