The best the bed will ever look

Finished the first set of 4 raised beds Today.  After speaking it over with a couple people I decided to keep the raised planter my Dad and I made right where it is and layout the beds around it.  I'm still unsure how much shade the liquid amber is going to cast but I'm hoping it's very little.

The base of the beds is ripped up and chopped sod.  Using a maddox the sod was lifted up, then chopped with a spade into softball sized junks.  The chunks were raked into a long row in the middle of the 36" bed, then spread with a metal rake.  After that soil from the fence post holes was dumped and spread on top.  Finally my first batch of compost from 2010 was spread on the first bed (background in the picture above and right on the pic below)

I expect these will settle and flatten out a bit as they are rained on and the sod chunks compact.  Hopefully they will prove an excellent environment for worms and other critters so I can start building some healthy soil for spring planting.

Chui did absolutely nothing to help in any way.