Starting to Build the Garden Bed Frame

Two garden updates in one week!  Yay!  We were actually able to start assembling the bed.  It's actually a fairly simple process, it's just going to take a little bit of time.

First off, we staked a line with string so that we assembled it straight.

The keystone getting staked in!

A quick check of the level shows that we did a good job getting the ground even the day before.  Unfortunately, the drill battery died, so we only got this far before we had to take a break.

By the time the drill was charged and we put together a few timbers and joints, we were only able to get a little bit assembled before Scott had to get ready for work.

I decided to stay out and keep working on putting together the timbers and joints for a little while.  Step one: take a joint and put it onto a timber, ensuring that it is on all the way and square.

Step two: drill out the hole.

Step three: drill in screw.

Step four: repeat on both ends and both sides.  Admire your work.

I got into a groove and was actually having a lot of fun with it.  I got a lot accomplished.

We decided to use composite timbers for this project for a couple reasons.  We considered wood, but neither one of us wanted termites to eat it away.  I also didn't want to use pressure treated wood (which they would avoid) because it would leach arsenic (among other things) into the soil and thus into the herbs, vegetables, and plants.  That would be unacceptable.  I hate the idea of putting plastic into a landfill but, in theory, this should last a long, long time.  In addition, we helped avoid putting plastic in a landfill using this: it's made from recycled plastic.  There are many more boxes where these came from!