Raised bed pictures

Well, after spending about 2 hours building the beds, here are the results of my labor.  It wasn't too difficult to build these raised beds so I think anyone can do it.  I still have to finish up the weed barrier fabric but that will not happen until I move them into place.  The area that I am putting these beds needs some work done to it to level it out since it is on a slight slope.  I will work on that aspect of the project next weekend.

This is the corner detail showing the 3 simple screws used to attach the corners together.

The following are images of the completed beds.  They are sitting on concrete temporarily and as I said earlier in this post, I am going to put them in the final location next weekend.



Building raised beds this weekend

Okay, it's time to get this party started. 

    The plan for this weekend is to build (2) 4x8x8 raised beds.  I already have the pressure treated wood (see previous post about the type of pressure treated wood used) and will be assembling them this weekend.  It's really easy to build the beds with little to no experience working with wood. 

    All you need to get started for each bed is the following small material list:

• Qty: 3   -   4x8 (or 4x6 if you prefer) pressure treated lumber boards
• Qty: 12  -  hot dipped galvanized screws (at least 2.5 to 3 inches in length)
• Cordless drill or corded drill (whatever you have will work)
• Handsaw or Circular saw (if you are comfortable with a circular saw it will make the cutting much easier)
• Tape measure
• Pencil
• Landscape fabric to attach to the bottom of the bed to prevent weeds from growing up through the bed.
• Staples and Staple gun to attach Landscape Fabric.

    Simply cut one of the 4x8 boards in half and then attach the cut boards to the long side boards with at least 3 screws per corner.  You will have a 4x8 rectangular bed once you are finished.  Attach the landscape fabric to the bottom of the bed with staples to form a barrier.

    I will post some pictures of the completed beds later this weekend.  The next task after building the beds is to fill them with dirt.  I will most likely make a trip to my local landscape company and have them fill my truck up with a couple scoops of dirt.  I have estimated that it will take at least 2 scoops of dirt per bed.  More details later on how this works out. 

Have a great weekend.

My journey begins....

Greetings to all of my gardening friends. 

My name is Chris and I have decided to start writing about my gardening escapades for everyone to read.  I am hoping to provide some humor as well as practical tips to my readers that describe my gardening journey. 

My wife and I are looking for a new house to purchase but things have slowed down to the point it may be at least a year before we can finally move out of the rental house into a more permanent location.  I have been reluctant to spend much time gardening or working outdoors at the rental house but since it will be a little longer before we move, I have decided to spend some time on a garden that we can take with us later.

My goals are as follows over the next 12 months:

• Build a couple raised beds for some vegetables
• Transplant a couple small tree seedlings from the Arbor Day Foundation into pots. 
• Figure out a way to handle the kudzu growing along the fence in the back yard
• Build a couple flower beds along the front of the rental house (this is my best friends house which we are "babysitting" while he is in the Army).

I have already been living here for almost 3 years now and haven't done much gardening since I moved in.  Last year I built 2 raised beds out of 2x8 ACQ pressure treated lumber (Alkaline cooper quaternary (ACQ) is a relatively new wood treatment that is available in some areas of the country. This product is higher in copper than CCA but is free of arsenic.)  My concern about this type of lumber in my garden is that the copper or other compounds used in the treatment process will leach into the soil.  I've read so much about studies that show many of the chemicals or compounds do not leach into the surrounding soil or in fact they do leach or who cares if they might leach into the ground, that I am almost to the point of simply building new beds out of stone.  At least I can pickup the stone beds and move them to another location (which I plan on doing when we get our home purchased). 

As to the Arbor Day Foundation trees I received after donating $10 to them, we had planned on being out of this rental by the time they were delivered but that didn't happen.  In the short-term, I had to find a way to keep them from dying so I planted them in the vegetable garden raised beds but now I have to move them.  I really don't want to plant them in the yard because there is little room to actually do this and I don't want to leave 10 holes in the yard when we finally move.  I think I can keep them growing with little shock if I just put them into 1 gallon pots for the next year.  They were only 1 year old seedlings when I got them so another year shouldn't hurt.  I will keep an eye on them though to ensure they don't become rootbound.

Well, that's it for now.  I will be posting often and hope that you will continue to read my journey.  Come back often.