Assembling Raised Bed Frames

The forecast for today didn't look so good when I looked over the weekend but with it being dry this morning and with less than a 50% chance of rain until 11:00 and my phone also telling me that's when the rain was due. 13C and really mild today, so I went to the allotment to carry on building the raised bed frames and to cover bed 15b against more rain.

The Allgold Raspberries are loosing their leaves and becoming see through. I was the only person on the allotment for a couple of hours, one of the new plot holders did his kitchen waste drop off for his compost and about half an hour before I left John arrived and we had a chat. 

State of play from my last visit with the older scaffold boards for the next frame stacked on the lower frame of bed 15a 

The Scaffold boards stacked on the lower frame of Bed 16a were assembled on top of Raise bed 16 and that frame will go on 16a once the Humus has been decanted and weeded ready to be put back into the top level of the raised bed

It's so much easier to assemble the frames on top of a covered bed. Two drills as one is fitted with the timber drill bit and the other with the screw bit head

Bed 15 cleared so that I can make the first frame for Bed 14 on top of it, out of the recently purchased scaffold boards. 

I turned the frame on its side so I could take the twist out of the corner joint and line up the timbers. 

Raised bed frame laid back down once final corner assembled

I thought it was all over, but rain was now due at 11:45. I covered bed 15a with the plastic garden tray so that when it rains it does not get any wetter, as I need to decant the soil in that bed and then back fill with rotting timber and branches.

There was time to assemble another frame from the new scaffolding boards before the rain came. The better sides facing outwards and nice tight square joints, unlike the first load of scaffold boards I bought that were not cut square. Looking at the photo I can see the split in the board and mid width so another couple of screws may go in next visit either side of the split at each corner.

Next visit I can clear the framed bed currently called 14 and install the two smaller frames end to end and assemble the next two frames ready. John or Wally will give me a hand to move and place them when the time comes, they are good neighbours and know I now have limitations of what I can mange to do on my own.