Herb garden construction, or: Will work for beer

You can plant an herb garden just about anywhere, and it's fantastically rewarding. I have had good luck in the past making raised beds out of salvaged cinder blocks. I haven't needed to reinforce the beds with concrete or rebar, and a little rosemary planted in the holes around the edge looks snappy! In this case I decided to go big and indulge my love of formal French gardens with their swanky geometric lay outs. I decided on eight beds, two blocks deep, lined with gopher wire, and arranged around a central fountain. It looked good on paper.

You know what will throw a kink into the best laid garden construction plan? A rapidly growing fetus in your lower abdomen, and repeated admonitions from your doctor to STOP picking up heavy stuff. Fortunately people love coming to the rescue of pregnant ladies; And they love beer. We got our six or seven hundred cinder blocks arranged in about four hours, thanks to our amazing friends and the genius of work parties.

Now we begin the process of building soil in the beds through lasagna gardening and cover cropping. And hey - it looks good in person too!