After taking a few years to adjust to island life, this spring we built ourselves a garden. This was a challenging exercise as our property is all slope (no level areas) and we had to build something that would keep out the local black-tailed deer.

First we built four raised beds (each 1 m by 3 m. [3 ft. by 9 ft.]). Digging in the rocky dirt was back-breaking.


Next we had to construct an eight-foot high fence to keep out the deer. It was slow work digging the post holes and difficult keeping the poles straight and level as we worked our way around the garden area.


The next step was to add mesh screening that is specifically sold as deer-proof fencing and we finished by adding two gates and a few other do-dads. The garden was christened Viewcone which had been the name of our former cabin.


Finally we put in some plants. We didn't get to plant until June but the weather this year had been so cool and wet that we weren't far behind most other gardeners in our area. We realize this is our novice garden, so we don't have great expectations for our first year but are quite happy with how the garden is doing so far.