Silent Garden Tour! End of August!

I put these up to keep out ibises and we're gonna make ones that are cuter. Not bad, considering I don't really build. So this is the first project where I'm using a circular saw. I have been practicing. I need to keep things cute, so I enjoy being out here. At least it looks good. Does it not look good? Thank you. You see these? These are ugly and we're gonna make ones that are cuter. I put these up to keep out ibises, aka bin chickens, and it's working. A lot of you weighed in on the different bird deterrent options in my last kitchen garden video. Thank you. I don't really wanna tempt fate by experimenting with too many different options. The netting is working really well for me, so we're just gonna stick with that physical barrier idea. I'm not great at kitchen gardening. It's my least favorite type of gardening, but I am trying to get better at it. There are people out there who only garden to grow food, and are like, why would you ever grow ornamentals? I am the total opposite. Gardening, for me, is about creating atmosphere. Gardens are artistic and emotional environments. I suppose I do have an emotional response to growing food, that being stress. You know what? I know that Hugh Richards has a book coming out about edimental gardening, and I think that book is gonna be for people like me. Anyway, I'm trying to change my relationship to growing food, but I need to keep things cute, so I enjoy being out here in this part of the garden. And it turns out that I like making things, so there's that. I'm gonna be basing what I do off these tall, raised garden bed covers made by this girl called Riss from Riss' Little Garden Patch. I think she's in Queensland, and what she does was probably the most cost-effective version of the type of build that I wanted that I could find, and I did a lot of research and a lot of calculating. And I think what she's done looks really good and cute and solid. And she also knows what she's doing with food gardening in general, so I would definitely follow her if you're into that. So this is the first project where I'm using a circular saw. Don't worry, I have been practicing. I was taught how to use one so that you guys don't have to witness me using it for the very first time, all right? And I'm not bad. Greg, who taught me how to use a circular saw, always said it's better to use permanent marker on your wood than a pencil because sawdust is flying everywhere and you're gonna be able to see the permanent marker more clearly. That's not bad. So all of these pieces, I'm gonna cut in half this way, like do rip cuts all the way down. Bunnings don't do rip cuts, so you have to do them yourself. I just don't need the pieces to be this thick and it just makes it more cost-effective. Here we go. Oh my God, there's dust all over the camera. Okay. Something here that does not wanna be cut. Come on. Happy to take notes. I think that worked really well. I mean, my cutting doesn't quite match at that middle point, but it's not terrible. I'll just have to sand it down. I'll have to continue this tomorrow because it's late and I don't wanna be that neighbor. Unfortunately, I was totally becoming that neighbor. Oh, ah, I can't get it quite right. Ow! Again, clearly I don't know how to drive this thing straight. I know you can get one of those guides, but I just don't have one. Like, I think it's just gonna take some practice and I just gotta take it slow, be patient with it. The friends that I'm borrowing the circular saw from, when I went over to pick it up, I was like, I promise I'll take good care of it. And they were like, take care of yourself first. Priorities, just go slow. Why do I always just miss a little bit? Oh my God. Good morning. We are building the frame today. Now, the tricky thing is, I'm not gonna be moving this thing. It's right in both garden beds at the moment and it has snow peas growing all over it. So I'm not gonna be moving it. I don't know where it would go, firstly. I mean, I thought about doing a lot of things like making it narrower, so it would sit right at the edge of the garden beds, but I feel like that would just look really narrow and weird and very unbalanced. So I'm just gonna leave it as it is. And then when the peas are done, I'll decide on what to do with it then. So what I'm gonna do right now is build the frame around it a piece at a time. What does that mean? Did I not drill a big enough pilot hole? Is that what that is? Just took me 40 minutes to drill the first screw in. We're not gonna talk about it. Had to call my dad. Oh, first one done. I've actually just realized that I need to cut the upright bits of timber down a little bit further. What I wanted was for this part to sit flush with this part of the trellis arch. The whole frame's popping up a little bit longer because I didn't take into account the top piece and the bottom piece. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. So glad I realized this now. That was annoying as hell. I'm gonna start putting the frame up today, but first, first, first, first, first, we need to figure out this poly piping issue. So at the moment, it's going over the top, but we can't have that because the wood has to sit flush with this. Not working. Are we smoking? Is that, oh, oh, oh, geez. Did that turn out okay on the other side? Oh, not really, not really. Cool. Oh, well, I forgot to hit record, but everything fits together nicely. I did good. It has taken me years of working in teams to realize that for the most part, I actually prefer working alone. I don't love relying on other people, and weirdly, having people rely on me can sometimes give me anxiety. So honestly, doing it myself is better for everyone, and yeah, this is definitely something to unpack in therapy. So last night, I was trying to assemble three sides of the cube on the porch, and then I was gonna kind of bring it out to the garden bed, but it just, it was so hard. Me and Tim were trying to do it together. So what I've decided to do is try and assemble it on the bed. There's a trick that I think might make it work better. I was watching this guy on YouTube assemble a shed by himself, and he basically just drilled in like support posts all around the foundation so that he could work alone. So that's what I'm gonna try and do. Cool. And then, something like this. I need to push this in. Yes. Oh, hang on. Oh, yes, yes. Is it, is it on a, it's on a tilt. It's on a tilt because the garden bed is sloped. It's on a, it's on a, it's on a tilt, and I don't know what to do. I'm gonna have to chalk it maybe. Does that make it better? Oh my God, I think that's hilarious. It just needs like, I didn't even think about that. Oh, it's still not right. It's still like a little bit off. Great. Good, good, good, good. Perfect. Oh my God. I'm gonna cry. Okay, so if that's going in there, I should be able to drill here. Nope, already stuck. Come on, we can do this. Why? Okay then, webs. I'm gonna do this the hard way. But why? All I wanna do is drill a hole. Why are you being so difficult? My question is why? I figured it was time to sleep on it and deal with it tomorrow. Okay, everything's working. That's one corner done. Hey now, who can build a cube? It may not seem like it right now, but I am actually really proud. I'm just tired and my brain's just full of stuff because this is all new. There's a lot of information I'm trying to retain. It's cold, it's windy, and that's been holding up pretty well in the wind. And we're gonna work on doors now. So the measurements are now all over my head just because of the level. Like everything should still kind of be the same. But seeing as I've added these corner brackets, I'm just gonna remeasure everything. So I don't want it to be too snug or too loose. 142 and a half. Where did my speed square go? And again, we're using the hand saw just so I can be a bit more precise. You know what's funny? This is, it's wider up the top. Where did my drill go? Seriously, where's my drill? Come on, please, please. Oh, one door down, three to go. Okay, so this next bit is just more of this. So I'm gonna try and speed it up for you. That is so freaking clever. I was gonna do hinge doors and kind of like have two doors opening from the center. Hinges are expensive. Well, that part really sucked just because I was drilling on all sorts of weird angles in the inner part of the frame. Super awkward. Glad that's done. All the doors work now. I am super, super pleased. Now that I've got it constructed and secured to the garden bed, I think I'm gonna paint it. I've been in two minds about whether to paint it or not because I do like the look of aged wood, but I think I'm gonna paint it. So a lot of you were telling me to use black netting instead of the green netting because black will disappear. Like maybe, it's still pretty visible. Maybe I just got the wrong kind. Well, it's what I got, so that's what we're using. I'm a little bit proud of that. Well, all the netting is done. I am super pleased with how that turned out. Managed to work it around the trellis as well. There is one more thing I wanna add. We're gonna put handles here and here. This is also what Rhys did to her garden bed covers. I don't suppose you have to have handles, but it's one of those things that makes it, you know, a little bit more user-friendly. These are from Amazon. They were the cheapest ones I could find. The ones at Bunnings were way more expensive. Hardware is expensive. This is what I'm learning. I have to go to Bunnings again because the bolt doesn't quite fit. I had to get these like custom-sized bolts so they would fit the width of the wood and Tim has just been cutting them down for me because I don't quite have the hand strength to do it quickly. But yeah, there's a wee bit of a gap, which means I have to go back to Bunnings. So yeah, I need to go get, I need to get some washers. Okay, last thing. Actually, I don't think I need them. Oh, that's it. Just needed the power of the drill. Yes. Ho, ho, ho. Ooh, look, look. Just do this for three other doors. Done. Welcome to my new garden bed cover. I'm gonna harvest one snow pea, just so I can demonstrate. Here. Does what it's supposed to. Looks good. So these are so lightweight, I probably could have hinged them, but well, for this side in particular, I think it's too close to the other bed. I could hinge this door if I really wanted to to open up like this, but nah. Will this make me a better food gardener? It's not bad, considering I don't really build yet. What should we do next? Oh, also, I know people are gonna ask me to paint the bottom of the garden beds the same colour. Listen, I think I have just enough paint to do the other frame, so we'll see. Also, maybe I don't wanna paint it because I don't like everything being matchy-matchy. This took way longer than I thought it would, but in my defence, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. It was all very stop-start. I had to Google things, figure out how tools worked. I phoned people for help. So it might be a hot minute before the second one gets done. Thank you to everyone that I called on for help for this. Thank you, Greg. Thank you, Abzi. Thank you, Dad. Thank you, Tim. You know what's really funny? This bed has been uncovered the entire time that I've been working on it, and I haven't seen one ibis. So, at least it looks good. Does it not look good?