Raised bed gardens

Ok, not a shop project, but it's still wood with a little dirt, and rocks mixed in...

In our first house, we built a couple raised bed gardens that worked very well.  We haven't had a garden for over 10 years and my wife misses one.  The time has finally come to build some new raised beds.
Sometime in May...
We have access to a little patch of dirt that gets great southern exposure

Those large rocks have always been too close to the driveway.  As part of this job, we are going to move them back a couple of feet or so.

Sounds like fun, huh?  Well, this part actually was....
See, a little internal combustion and hydraulics makes this job seem like play...

First I dig a deep trench behind the rocks.

Then, I simply push them over from the driveway side.  Sorry, no pics of that.
Do you see raised beds?  Soon they will be...
A fifty foot doug fir was at this spot last year and I knew there were roots, which can be dealt with in various ways.  For these, I got my hatchet out and chopped away!

The raised beds are built with 4x6 pressure treated lumber. 
The edges are connected with short pieces of #3 rebar - one about 6" or so in from each end.  Then, the corners got a longer piece of rebar from the top down into the ground.

After about 4 hours of work, we had the beginnings of some homebrewed veggies...
Supports for critter protection

A week or so later - still in May...
I next put up some supports made from pressure treated 2x4 material and lag bolts.  These will hold up frames that have chicken wire attached.  The two boards on top form a gap that we can allow some taller plants to grow through.

Time for dirt.

A few days later - it's still May...
Because of how the delivery charges worked out, it costed the same to get 6 yards as 3.  Go figure.  This is nice dirt, so a few extra yards couldn't hurt.  Plus my neighbor needed some, so she got a little over a yard of it.

I had the driver dump it at the end of the driveway.  Looks like a lot of work huh?  Well, it only took about an hour to move it all...
Then another hour or so to spread it around...  I'm guessing we have about 8 hours in this project so far and I think it's looking pretty good!
Time to get some plants going...  I'll add some pictures as things grow.
Getting toward the end of May...
My wife planted tomatoes, cukes, beans, peas, peppers, lettuce, some herbs and a few other things that I can't remember.

We're looking forward to getting these on the dinner table!

Those are the chicken wire screens - I hope they keep the critters out...

Stone paths and let the growing begin...

Here we are, June 1st...
She has been busy!  Look at those rock paths.  I'm sure she's not done...
She did these a few years ago...  All stones from our property laid by hand.
June 7th...
The stone paths are looking fantastic!, everything is growing in the boxes and my wife planted some nice flowers...
July 15th...
We're starting to get a bit of hot weather and the plants are finally taking off.  Here is some lettuce, carrots, peppers and a tomato plant.

So far, the chicken wire is keeping the wildlife under control.
Close up of the pepper and tomato plants.
We'll finish up this brief update with a pic of the sun shining through some peas and one of flowers and peas growing through the gap in the top.
The garden was such a success, we're planning on expanding next year.