Footstep 46: Painting the square foot gardens: Turning

It is not yet seven days since the last bitumen coat on the outside of the boxes.  I decided to buy little feet for them to stand on, which means that I can flip the boxes earlier, and the underside can continue to dry whilst I start on the insides:

The feet waiting for the box

I purchased tiny pavers at R1.75 each for the feet.  They work extremely well.  I wouldn't use them for normal garden pots, as they are a little large.  For this purpose they are perfect.

Box on its feet

This is how the box will finally look.  It is also probably in its final resting place.  I may shuffle it around a bit so that the side closest to the road is more accessible without standing in the little garden which is running along the fence.  I'll worry about this before filling the box as once filled, it will be way too heavy for one person to lift.

First Coat of Primer

These are the two boxes, flipped, and with the first coat of Primer one.  Remember that this is the coat that is half bitumen-half water, the point being that it soaks into the wood.  This coat dries quite quickly - within two to three hours.  I will probably do the first coat of only bitumen later today.  I may as well get it done as my hands are already splotchy brown, and besides, if I wait a day, it is only one more day past before I can plant.

This coat was actually more complicated.  It is very important to get the bitumen into all the nooks and crannies, and there were lots of knots in the wood that needed me to dig the brush in, so it looks a bit messy.  This won't matter, as I have three more coats to go to make it look better, and then there are the white coats thereafter.

It is probably worth noting, for anyone who may be tempted to follow this process, that the various coats of paint are put on over each other with brush strokes going in the opposite direction.  In other words, if the first coat has the brush strokes going from front of house to fence, then the next coat goes from neighbours fence to neighbours fence at right angles to the first coat.  This helps to create a solid seal with no weak spots.