The first bit of real work for 2008

I'm either turning into some weird form of magpie, or developing some sort of Diarmuid Gavin personality complex, and started being drawn to, and making stuff out of shiny metal.

It all started a while back when I saw a skip full of scrap metal at work. We recycle a load of this stuff all the time, but it never struck me until recently that I could put some of it to good use.

Here's what I saw on that epiphanous moment:



Isn't it a beautiful thing!?

After a little thought, I decided that I'd turn this scrap metal into edges for raised beds, so here's what happened earlier today...

It started with me and a bootful of this scrap metal, I then flatted out one of the "lips" of the bits of metal and bent the other over to form a neat edge. I bent some at 90 degrees to form corners and help give the whole thing a bit of rigidity, and then simply bashed them into the ground, linking them onto each other as I went.



As you can see, the first ended up a bit squiffy, but I like to look at it as quirky character! Or manufacture/nature juxtaposition.



The second was a bit more successful:



Only another 16 to go!

On another note, my garlic is showing signs of life (finally)!!



The onions either side have yet to show any signs that they're still there, but those in the shed have started to poke through. I've about 10 of each red, white and standard onions just in case those in the ground fail completely.



After all that my knees were hurting and my wrists aching from bending the metal, so I'll attack this in chunks I think, I'll get there in the end - hopefully before the spring!

What with these and my planned pond, I should have plenty to keep me busy over the coming weeks...