A few improvements

I am in a brief lull between major projects at the moment, so I have taken some time to make a few improvements for the summer season.  First of all, I purchased and assembled a handy plant stand that I plan to use for hardening off my transplants before I put them in the raised beds.  It has 4 shelves so there is plenty of room for me to use.

The entire stand is covered with a reinforced covering that has 2 zippers down the front.  You can roll up the middle section to have access to the shelves, and then close it to give them extra protection overnight.  I'm sure it will be useful at other times of the year as well.  I will probably bring it inside over the winter and use it in the basement as added storage space for garden pots and such.

The next improvement I put in place was to construct some pea and bean frames for vining peas and beans.  They aren't exactly works of art, but they serve their purpose! 

I used 2x4 lumber for the uprights and 1x3 for the cross supports.  I used deck screws to attach the cross pieces to the upright frames and sandwiched the netting in between.  Now I have great vertical space for my peas and beans.  I actually planted some peas as well.  It's early, but they can be sown as soon as the soil can be worked. 

My contractor and general construction guy brought new soil this past weekend to fill the raised beds back up to the top, since they had subsided a lot over the last season and then the winter.  Now they are ready to go.  I had planned on using some of our own compost pile but it isn't well composted enough yet.  Next year. 

Then, I needed to think about outdoor relaxation, so my final improvement was to assemble this fabulous double hammock on a deck stand.  The instructions were fairly simple and although it said you should have two people to assemble it, I managed just fine by myself.  The slightly hair-raising part was when I had to balance the overhead cover supports on my head when putting in the first screws.  Fortunately, I have a hard head and a decent sense of balance, so I managed to get it done quite quickly. 

I have already had a couple of rest sessions on the hammock.  It does take a wee bit of coordination to get in and out of it, but I'm getting the hang of it.  I think this will be a lovely treat during the warmer weather.  I do plan to get a mosquito net for it.

Soon the weather will allow me to re-plant my deck containers and hanging baskets and then deck will be ready for summer.  I can't wait to get the raised beds growing again!