A garden? Me? Planter Boxes? Another Project?

Yup, here we go.  We have this large enclosed garden area with 8' deer resistant fencing all around.  The space measures about 160' x 100'.  There are already three apple trees there.  Used to be four vines but the deer ate them away and they died (one of the gates was left open).  The view below shows only one section mowed.  The rest of the field was mowed down and will be mowed from now on as well.  We're just not sure what to do about that other half where the apple trees are.

This is the view from google maps:

Odd shaped, but that's what I have.

This is what the plan is:

The initiatives:

1. There will be eight planter boxes in place, all of them 2' high, 4' x 6'.
2. Each box to have individual irrigation (controlled by the Raspberry Pi running the OpenSprinkler Pi (OSPi)).
3. Each box will have lighting.
4. We will plant four more grape vines of some kind.
5. Restore the irrigation to the apple trees.
6. On the right side of the field (along side the shed), there will be flowers.  One of the previous owners had made rock outlines in various areas (a bit hard to see here) that don't lend themselves to anything else.

The area where the planter boxes are is already pretty clear of rocks.

The first step will be to use redwood stakes for the four farthest corners and draw a string to make the boxes all lay straight.  Once they go in, they don't move.  The boxes will be far enough that the mower can get through between them.  I'm not sure but we may put some weed cloth between the boxes or something to keep the weeds from growing back there.

We already have the bottom run of redwood and the doug fir is in the truck ready to be cut and assembled.

The next step will be to dig the trenches for the irrigation coming TO the box area from the water source along with the electrical for the valves and the low-power run for the lighting.

Another feature will be in the four corners, there will be 1" PVC attached to the 4x4 redwood posts.  That will be for a 1/2" PVC hoop with a shade cloth of some kind to help keep the blistering sun off what can't handle it as well as the frost.

The boxes will have a 1/4" metal mesh "cloth" to keep the critters out, and a layer of weed cloth at the bottom and sides.  That will also keep the soil from being against the wood.  I got a 10'x200' roll of the weed cloth and a couple rolls of 4x50 of the 1/4" stuff.

Once we know where the boxes go, we'll make sure the PVC gets to a distribution location and set that and the valves in place, bringing raindrip out of the valves and into the boxes.

After the boxes are all built, the plan is to contact one of our neighbors that does landscaping and see about having him deliver rock for the bottom half and soil to fill the boxes.  While we get that done, the lighting will go in as well as getting the raindrip ready.

Well, that's the plan at least.