This week I created a raised garden bed out of an old plastic storage bin. I set it up before we were to have two days of rain, in the hopes that it would thoroughly soak the bed, priming it for planting.

First, I drilled holes into the base for drainage. I chose to place them along the bottom of the sides, rather than right underneath, thinking it could provide a shallow layer of water to stick around as reserves. Really hoping it doesn’t turn into a puddle for disease and pests to procreate.

Next I filled about half of the bin with sticks, for drainage and bulk. I may have overdone it with the wood, not leaving enough space for the other materials.

A small amount of vegetable and fruit scraps went in next, to slowly break down with the wood and create compost. To prevent that process from sucking nutrients out of the active top soil, I buffered the actively composting portion from the top layer with a deposit of finished compost (store-bought; my compost pile is not yet a success).

Finally, I added the level of top soil, admittedly thinner than I would have liked, due to the excess of wood. I’m also a bit concerned that the finished compost layer was insufficiently thick to function as a barrier.

So if or when things go wrong, I’m hoping I can distinguish if the problem originated from standing water, active compost interference, or deficient top soil.

If all goes well, I’ll transplant the pepper pups out of the eggshell carton and into the spacious garden bed. The seedlings have grown past the constraints of the carton cover, so I left it open to prevent stunting sprout growth. I had a panic one evening at seeing all the wee leaves shriveled up, seemingly from dehydration. I immediately watered them, and got darn lucky, as most of them unfurled by the next morning. Looking at these growing bubs, thinking: You’re gonna need a bigger boat.