a day in the life of a latvian mom

A week ago I mentioned that we were working on something bigger outside. Well… now I can finally show you what it was.

Finally, a Warm Day

Can you guess?

Three long raised beds. Not pallet collars this time — proper wooden raised beds built from real planks.

And honestly… it all started because I realised I needed more growing space. More vegetables. More flowers. More experiments. More everything. Typical gardener problem, right?

The original plan was simple. Three very long raised beds — around 5 meters long and about 40 cm deep. But then reality arrived. We had wooden planks already pre-cut for house renovation… about five years ago. Naturally, I decided:

“We’ll think about the renovation later. Right now we need raised beds.” Typical woman logic. Poor Jānis never stood a chance.

Before we continue, we need to talk about Jānis’ outfit.

He was basically dressed in my clothes. My oversized jumper and my tight shorts. The jumper was long enough to protect his back from the wind, and because the weather was absolutely wild, he even used a little pouch bag to keep the giant jumper from flying everywhere.

Keep in mind — this was all before Jānis got transported to the hospital. Maybe this was the true reason behind it all?

Not Out of the Woods Yet…

So there we were, looking completely ridiculous, building raised beds in the wind.

At first I realised we did not actually have enough material for three equal 5-meter beds anyway. And honestly? Three identical beds looked a little boring. So I changed the design halfway through and decided on one 6-meter bed, one 4-meter bed, and one 2-meter bed instead.

Much more interesting. RIght?

We cut the planks, screwed everything together, impregnated the inside wood, added metal wire underneath to keep rodents and moles away, and lined the inside with foundation membrane so the soil would not touch the impregnated wood directly.

Very serious construction business happening here.

And then came the hardest part.

Filling them with soil.

The beds are about 90 cm wide, 40 cm high, and the lengths are 6 m, 4 m, and 2 m.

That means together they hold about: around 4.3 cubic meters of soil.

Which is… a lot.

Thankfully Jānis’ father arrived with a tractor, because otherwise I think we would still be moving soil today. We mostly had to move it from one end to another, level everything out, and slowly fill the beds.

The three raised beds were finally finished on Tuesday evening. And then on Thursday evening Jānis ended up in the hospital. I truly hope I am not responsible for that.

Because honestly, I worked incredibly hard too. Between building, lifting, carrying planks, screwing everything together, and impregnating the wood, I physically overworked myself so badly that at one point I could barely breathe for almost an hour afterward.

It was hard work.

But standing there now, looking at the finished beds, I already know it will be worth it. And how do you like the spot! Imagine it’s all growing and blooming… and the sunset is in the background! Love it! Inspiring!

Now comes the fun part — planting! Can’t wait!

Ilze