| OCR Text |
Show MAY 23, 2001 WASATCH ee pe COUNTY COURIER Daccaeae] 4 - Building An In-Ground Garden Bed _ a weekend ritual. et ground bed doesn’t. The soil in a raised bed warms earlier in the spring and has better drainage. What’s more, since of the soil and make - mendations specific recom- concerning the types of organic material that should be used to “amend” the soil: Soil amendments . Ja ames ‘acquired experience at an should be mixed in with the existing ae early age. From the time he was 9 until | soil using a rototiller. Premium topsoil © he graduated from, high school, he — can be used at the surface followed by cared for an elaborate and large garden a top dressing or mulch that will keep © of an aunt and uncle. the soil moist and prevent weeds. The garden consisted of four large If the idea of major excavation and . turf areas, a formal rose garden, a baro- . soil replacement or amendment isn’t nial hedge that bordered the property, | your cup of tea, and all you want are a a fruit orchard, decorative planting borfew top-quality planting areas for veg- ders and potted plants galore. James etables or flower beds, think “garden soon discovered that there was more to gardening than pulling weeds and raking leaves—although there was plenty beds.” There are two types of garden beds—one is dug directly into the _ roses, trimming hedges and tilling soil -soon became a part of James’ routine. What we once considered drudgery would someday be a wonderful source of pleasure and relaxation. |Among the lessons we learned early Aue ofhier? ground—an “in-ground bed” and the other is raised, and is appropriately named a “raised bed.” : In both cases, a wood frame is built as a border to the bed. In the case of . the in-ground bed, the wood framing at the perimeter is partially embedded into the soil with about 6 inches - exposed above ground. The boards for a raised bed are higher (about 1 inch to 18 inches above ground) and essential: ly act as retaining walls. pees s the difference between the den bed for aciagiee use redwood or., cedar due to potential soil contamina- — tion from the toxic chemicals contained _ in pressure-treated material. Before building the frame, lay out the location on the ground and rototill and amend the soil. This will prevent damage to the frame oyethe Mags raised beds aren’t subject to foot traffic, after installation. = the soil remains loose and easy for 3 - Start the box construction iy sikach- : roots and water to penetrate. ing the two 4-foot lengths of wood to Making a planting bed is easy. You'll - the 8foot lengths, using the’construc- _ need a circular saw (a hand saw will — tion screws. Next, place the box i in the work if you need the exercise), a drivdesired location and use a pick and er-drill, a small sledgehammer, a pick, a shovel to create a shallow trench thatshovel and a steel rake, some lumber, _ the box will recess into—a few inches wood stakes, construction screws and will be adequate. Drive stakes at all soil. | four corners and one at the center of | First, decide how large you want each of the two long sides for added | your planting bed to be and whether _ Stability. The top of the stake should be you want it in-ground or raised. When driven slightly below the top of the considering size, remember that the boards. Drive construction screws center of the bed should be reachable through the outside face of the boards | from the edges. Say your bed will ‘into the stakes. measure roughly 4 feet by 8 feet and be If you have your heart set on a in-ground. Your material list should raised bed, substitute the 1-by-8’s with consist of two 4-foot pressure-treated 12-by-12’s and use 2-by-2 stakes that are by-8’s and two 8foot pressure-treated 18 to 24 inches tong. 1-by-8’s. Don’t forget six 1-foot redFinish the job by filling the bot with wood or cedar stakes and construction premium soil, seeds or plants and screws to attach the boards to the water. You'll be the envy of your neighstakes. . | borhood. Note: pressure-treated material is For more home improvement tips suggested because it is more rot- and information visit our Web site at resistant. If you will be using the garwww.onthehouse.com. — iff “enjoy the ride.’ ’) But doing Busnes: : ers. Each wiles in a setting designed for transient either tourists, at a destination not otherwise on the beaten path, meant that we had to adjust to human tides, such as they from ghost such. there were. MATTHEW HEIMBURGER SPECIAL TO THE COURIER hen | was young and we were still adjusting to the quirks of this valley, my family into the rétail trade. They—and got by "extension, I-opened up a Small giftshop at the Heber Creeper Railroad ‘Village Emporium. and called _ _“Brigham’ Ss It featured toys, dolls, handmade gift items—some painstakingly reproduced from the ‘designs of yesteryear, others made the week before in Taiwan. It was all of limited success. The train back then was still known as the Heber Creeper, and its nickname denoted the approach to life of ‘most of us associated with it and the surrounding village. Not that: people weren’t serious about success! (Only sadists go into retail to start anyway, and only the worst kind do it simply to uA | Throughout the summer there were two trains—the morning and the afternoon. If you heard the whistles blowing, it was too late—the train had left the station and had taken all of your potential customers with it. Therefore, the trick was to be open and smiling for the hour before and after each train, and to do your very best to suppress boredom inbetween. That was not too had to do back then because the retailers were con_ stantly looking for ways to attract and © keep customers during slow times. Dusty Hanks would play his guitar and sing Western favorites. If that didn’t hold people’s attention, he would pull an authentic at the village was . building moved Corinne or some other almosttown, or one built to appear as And for each unique building was a personality or two to match it. In the old roundhouse was an ice-cream shop run by Dezzie. Cones were about 60 cents, and somehow I managed to come up with at least that amount, twice a day. (Embezzlement is such an ugly between knew appearances, Bart before fame changed him forever. As for the retailers but I think and I fortune — themselves, they were as colorful as the entertain- going so a day, far as to lie about my even. age once to get the name and number of a cute girl from Arizona. I learned the barter system, trading my time and _ energy for the “family version” of the minimum wage, Butter Pecan on a sugar cone, and unlimited free play at Battlezone, Galaga, and Moon Cresta. And I learned that change sometime comes down hard. I was too young to understand the. word!) What is now Heber City’s finest restaurant was once the Belle particulars of why the whole experiment came crashing down. I know that Starr Saloon whose glory was already faded only a few days after its new construction. Though tourists found it inviting, the most frequent customers there were actually Dusty,. Davis, played a part. The bottom line was that only a short time later, the train stopped running for awhile and the village emptied and grew older. (This Dezzie, and me. And then there was was especially hard for the buildings The Cantina. Whatever the full definition of the Spanish word, I’m sure it was never intended to connote a video game parlour or a working art that were only pretending to be turnof-the-century.) And the little crew of out his false teeth and make faces gallery—the former run by Monte, resembling the TV. miner-fortyniner the latter by Erla. Bob ran the Ore stereotype. Davis French was hired on > House (a rock shop filled to brimming _ to perform mini melodramas in the — with one man’s obsession), the Old West style. On any given day he General Mercantile was run by would become the sheriff, the town — Rosalyn (whose antiques somehow _ drunk, the bad guy, or the mortician— — seemed before their time), and a depending on his mood. He practiced Chinese Laundry (no Asian wares, no falling off of buildings onto track and detergent). There was a blacksmith, field high-jump mats hidden in old and “olde-tyme” photographer, and, wagons. Soon enough, we stray kids oh yes, a slew of railroad engineers, were doing the same between shifts. laborers, and hired help milling about. Even Doug Seuss used to come into ~ It was its own little village with its. our little “town” to train his animals to be tolerant of people. I don’t know for sure because we didn’t keep in touch fell in love about once own kind of charm. A city created to resemble a city with retailers playing the part of citizens, and tourists the part of... tourists. It would be too dramatic to say that I “came of age” there, but in truth, I passed some major milestones during the few but slow-moving, summers: I money, dedicated personality, and pride alt! retailers and performers disbanded, too. People that probably don’t even know that they touched my life in pleasant and profound ways just seemed to mosey off into the sunset, never to be seen again. I’ve since eaten at the Snake Creek Grill—on the very spot that I learned to be a minor-league salesman at Brigham’s Emporium. And, while the food has always been wonderful, I know that I appear a disinterested. patron and a distracted dinner companion. I become quiet and contemplative; I sit with fixed smile and unfocused eyes. No, I am not “miles away” _at all—just off by the many infervening ee , Matthew Heimburger 1s a professor of American civilization at Brigham Young University. He lives here in the Heber Valley with his wife and son. | - Remembering to Sigaal at the Turn-o f-the-Century | ST Tae on is that plants flourish when they receive ample sunlight, water and fertilizer: Equally important is the quality _ of the soil. Soil that is too alkaline, too acidic or poorly drained can spell disas- than I LSAT RY ee RT esa neeepenr tse etree ne of that, as well. The art of pruning fetter ey sional. The pro will be able test the pH ~ one ar sisters helped our dad tidy up the garden every Saturday. Weeding, raking, trimming, sweeping and pes were Is rT a green thumb, we can hold our own. When we were kids, we and our two two? Actually both styles accomplish the _ goal of better quality soil and improved various locations throughout your yard’ drainage. The raised bed, however, has to your local nursery or garden profesa couple of advantages that the in- } Gardening is a favorite pastime i - both of us. While neither claims to have ter for even the best-cared-for plants. If you have less than desirable soil, take several samples gathered from ea BY JAMES AND MORRIS CAREY ” | |
