black wood stain (1@$4.45 ~ Home Depot)
roll of black weed fabric (1@$5.99 ~ Meijer)
bag of peat mixture (3@$4.99 ~ Meijer)
bag of composted cow manure (12@$1.39 ~ Meijer)
I propped the box on a couple cinder blocks and used the ol' rag method for staining. I stained the sides, top and a couple inches down on the inside. Perhaps black stain wasn't the best idea. It looks kind of crappy but it's fine. I think my vision was more like black paint than black stain.
After putting the box on the ground in position, I filled the bottom with weed fabric and stapled it to the insides-- 3-4 staples per side just to hold it still while filling.
Next, I dumped all the stuff in the box. I put 6 bags of compost, followed by 3 bags of peat, followed by the final 6 bags of compost. That's something like 550 pounds. And with that, my square foot garden became a permanent fixture in my yard.
The plan is/was to de-clump it all by hand and give it a good mixin'. I spent about an hour de-clumping and mixing and made it about half way around. The compost was super clumpy. My helper (below) was not particularly helpful. Her idea of helping is frolicking in the freshly cut grass and sticking her tongue out at me. I've recruited a better helper for tomorrow...one with opposable thumbs.
