And after all that...

After having thought up the idea together, clearing out about twenty car-loads of jungle, ordering 500 breeze blocks and several tons of sand, cement and gravel, carrying it all up the garden (thanks Lucie!) digging the trenches for the foundations, buying a cement mixer, mixing and pouring the concrete, building 36 metres of 90cm high walls, covering them all in a mortar made of sand, cement and soil, then digging and sifting endless cubic metres of soil in 12 litre buckets, weeding them, covering them in geotextile, installing metal arches and covering them with insect netting, and finally installing a soak hose and automatic watering system, we eventually planted the first of our raised beds with seedlings raised from organic seeds in the living room and nurtured in the greenhouse, with some carefully chosen flowers to help protect them, just forty days ago...

And the picture shows how it looked on the day of planting, and then after 17 days, 24 days, 28 days, 33 days and finally, 40 days.

Invest in nature.  It works!