He didn't just build me one. I haz TWO. After the first one was built, we decided it looked lonely (okay, I decided it looked lonely). He made my garden bed a buddy. So, now, I haz TWO. Again, with the awkward spelling. Anwho, I was so giddy with my first bed that I forgot to take photos. The second time around, I did better. I stalked the man around with a camera. There was plenty of grumbling on his part, and I promised to post no face shots if he let me ask silly questions and bother him when writing the tutorial.
Once it's all together the beds are 4' long x 4' wide. All the wood is untreated cedar- rot & weather resistant, repels insects to some extent, and is pretty durable. Since we'll be moving around a bit, I wanted something we could easily take apart, and a size that could fit into a variety of back yards. We also decided to place the beds against the back fence, to prevent neighbor dogs from digging under fence boards, and our dogs charging the gaping holes. It took several trips to two different home-improvement stores to get the right materials. One had everything we needed, but their saw couldn't cut through the posts. The other didn't carry the cedar boards, but, they had a large enough saw to cut posts. Oy.
We had all the wood cut before buying. It was loads easier to transport, and cleaner than what we would have done at home with a hand saw. Also,the cuts were free. So there's that...
The downside is that they do rough cuts only, so the boards weren't perfectly aligned for assembly. We didn't mind much (just kind of matched up boards as it went along), but if you're a stickler for perfection you'll probably cut the boards at home with a schmancy saw.
Now, for the good stuff. To the list!
Materials
Hardware:
Wood:
Untreated cedar. On the left we have the rough cut boards, on the right, our posts. Boards were 8' sections of 2 x 6's cut in half. The posts are sections of 2 x 4. Probably started with a 12' hunk and cut it down to however tall we needed it (17" in this case, which gives you loads extra room). There was lots of arguing discussion about what size of wood we needed. The man likes to overbuild.
Other junk:
Tape measure, assortment of drill bits, and a few of the 2 1/2" screws ready to go.
Make it so:
Grab two posts and one board, like zis:
Mark where ya want your holes - ours went in about 2" from the side and 1" from the top. Drill pilot holes for the 2 1/2 " screws, then apply ze hardware! Here's what the first should look like:
Clear as mud? Excellent. Now, repeat until you have both ends of one board screwed into two posts.Then, do it again, til you have one section that looks like this:
Once ya have that finished, make another.
Go ahead, I'll wait here. I have coffee.....
Let's put the sides on, shall we? Don't forget to offset the position of the screws. This time around, we're using 3 1/2" screws.
First board placed, it should look like this:
Easy, no?
Now, just go on and screw in the remaining boards, like dis:
At some point, it was set on it's side to screw in the last board. Why? I dunno. Just felt like showing the photo.
Once you're done, you'll notice the posts stick out. That's on purpose, really.
Take that sexy new bed out into the garden, whereabouts you wanna put it. Grab your shovel.
See those legs? Yeah, they're going in the ground. Mark the area around those posts, and dig baby. Dig.
And he did. :)
end is a little higher. S'okay. Bust out your level, and tweak to even it on up. Fill in the
holes, and voila! You haz a garden bed, too. Easy, right?
Aw, aren't they cute? We filled the second bed with hay and the entire contents of our compost bin, mixed, and dumped in three bags of organic soil. Gorgeous.
That greenish thing in the middle? Potato tower. The bed to the left has five tomatoes, two peppers (Ancho and jalapeño), yellow straight neck squash, garlic, scallions, two types of basil, oregano, and rosemary. Oh, and some marigolds planted around there to attract hover flies.
The second bed has Alaska peas, zucchini, loads of Texas sweet onions, eggplant, watermelon and dill. I'll probably tuck in some marigold seeds here, once planty goodness establishes a bit more.
Yeah, I'm rockin' the veggie mojo right now.
Oh, and one more thing:
Oriental poppies. Marvelous.
