It is in your best interest to build a raised bed with landscape timbers for several reasons. One reason is that it makes it much easier to grow your plants since you can fill the bed with nutrient-rich soil. That means your plants can remain healthy and robust for a very long time.
Secondly, if you have chronic back pain or have had a spinal injury, a raised garden bed means that you do not have to bend too much when you are gardening. Therefore, those two reasons are excellent reasons to build a raised garden bed with landscape timbers.
How can you do that? Creating one is not hard to do. Let’s go over the step-by-step process of how you can make this new addition to your backyard.
How To Build A Raised Garden Bed With Landscape Timbers – Step by Step Guide
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First Step: Get The Frame Ready
The first step to take is to gran two pieces of timber that are four feet long. You will also need two pieces of landscaping timber that measure eight feet long. Put them down on the area of the garden where you want the elevation to be.
Once you do that, create a rectangle on the ground which will enclose the area which will be in the box. Take a shovel or a spade and use them to mark the interior and exterior perimeter.
After you do that, you will need to take away the landscaping timbers and what you will see are two rectangular imprints on the ground. One track will be inside of the other, which is going to be your trench lines.
Second Step: Time To Start Digging And Create A Trench
You have your rectangular tracks, and now the next step is to create a trench. That means it is time to start digging one around the designated perimeters. You need to dig around six inches because they are for the raised bed’s walls.
After you finish digging, then put the dirt into your wheelbarrow. After digging up the perimeter, then you will want to fill it with gravel. Ensure that you fill it up to two inches, and make sure you do it in an even fashion. That is essential that you make sure that it is even.
Third Step: Lie Down The Timbers
After placing the gravel into the trench you dug, your next step is to put the timbers you collected inside it. You also want to ensure that they line with the corners, or else it will not work. Line them up in a way where they appear to go clockwise.
After doing that, take your drill and then start drilling some holes that measure one-half of an inch. Drill the holes every two feet on the wood. The next step is to grab one-foot-long rebar.
Then you need to take a sledgehammer and begin pounding it into the hole. Make sure it goes right into the soil, and don’t stop until the end meets the timber’s level.
Rinse and repeat to each of the holes and put more of the timbers over the ones you laid down. However, this time, place them into a counterclockwise order. Take five screws on the sides to merge both layers of the timber, and ensure that you distribute them evenly.
Fourth Step: Make Some Holes For Drainage
You still need your drill, so do not put it away. The next step is to drill in some holes on each side of the timber. You will want to ensure that the holes measure around one inch in diameter. The way to do it is to drill one hole on the side of the frame’s width.
Then you want to drill two holes on the side of the frame’s length. The importance of this is so that drainage can happen, or else if you don’t take this essential step, that will cause your garden to drown or ruin it in other ways.
You do not want that to happen, so you need to ensure that there is proper drainage.
Fifth Step: Time To Finish
You are finishing up the project! That means you will put the last timber pieces on top of the ones you put down. This time, you will put them down in clockwise order, and you need to drill the screws into them so you properly merge them with the other landscaping timbers.
All you need to do is mark your completion of the raised garden bed with landscape timbers. Now you have the freedom to plant anything you wish, and you know that your plants are going to do very well in this garden bed.
Conclusion
Building a raised garden bed with landscape timbers is something you will want to do for several reasons. Firstly, you have the opportunity to allow your plants to not only grow but to thrive since they will grow in nutrient-rich soil. Secondly, it is suitable for your back, especially if you have a chronic condition involving your back, whether you had an injury, arthritis, or chronic fatigue.
Gardening can take a lot of energy out of you, so you want to make it as easy and enjoyable as possible. It is a project that does not take a lot of time to do, and once you set aside a day to build the raised garden‘ bed, you will be glad that you did it.
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