Wife and Sis headed up to Minnesota on an important mission Friday, but more on that later. That left Smasher and I to have some good dude time together. What do a couple of wild and free guys do when given the opportunity? We build stuff!
In the spring of 2014, I built six raised garden boxes so we could have a vegetable garden. They worked well for a number of years, but in 2020, rot had gotten the best of them, and I had to tear them down. We learned a lot from that first set of boxes, the main lesson being that raised, off-the-ground boxes are not as convenient as one would expect. While it’s nice to be able to plant and weed the boxes at waist height, the plants eventually grow up and you end up working above your shoulders when it comes time to harvest. They also require a lot of water. You can see the boxes on the side of my garage in this old pic.
When I tool the boxes down, Wife was working hellish hours at her job and Smasher was an infant. We decided it would be best to just skip trying to have a garden that summer. In 2021, the scenario was reversed, and I was working a lot of hours. Last summer, we finally got some balance back to our lives and missed having a garden, so we decided that this year we’d build some raised boxes, but on the ground this time.
First things first, we needed to get some materials. Dad and Mom flew out to visit my Brother in Portland for a few weeks, which means I have access to Dad’s truck. With a plan in mind, we headed to Menards to pick up some boards. Smasher had to stay in the truck for safety’s sake, but he was perfectly content to gnaw on some twizzlers and to chat with anyone who happened to walk by. (His car seat was in the back, I just had him sitting up front so I could see him better while I was going up and down the mezzanine.)
For materials, I’m using AC2 pressure treated, ground contact rated lumber. The sides are 2x6 cedar tone, the corner posts are 4x4, and the eventual top cap will be 2x8. The top cap will be stained black to match the deck, so I saved a few bucks and went with the non-cedar tone option. I really wanted to use actual cedar for this project so I could match the deck, but after doing some research (yes, on the internet…) I learned that cedar doesn’t do so well when left in contact with soil. I want these boxes to last for a while, so I went with pressure treated. While today’s pressure treated lumber is supposedly safe for garden beds, I am going to line the boxes with heavy plastic. This will be added protection against any chemicals leaching into the box and will help keep the dirt from seeping through the cracks. Anyway, back to building…
Since the weather was absolutely perfect and inhaling pressure treated wood dust is not great for the lungs (well, any wood dust for that matter), it seemed fitting to enjoy the sun and warm weather and work outside.
Smasher needed a nap, so he missed out on most of the actual work. Something tells me I got played. He got to go to the store, eat some snacks, but was ‘tired’ as soon as the real work was starting. Kids. Anyway, with a few cuts and some creative clamping…
…I had a pair of 4’ wide, 8’ long, 16” deep garden boxes.
All the screw holes were pre-drilled and countersunk to help keep the wood from splitting. This was the first real workout I gave my new Makita drill and impact and I was not disappointed. Great control when driving screws and the 3ah batteries I was using lasted through all but the last dozen or so screws of the project.
The boxes themselves turned out as well as could be expected. Because the yard is not level or flat, and I didn’t feel like crawling around in the dirt all afternoon, I decided to build the boxes on their sides, checking for square as I went. After I had them together, I took diagonal measurements and found that one box was 3/16” away from perfect, the other was 1/8”. Nothing that can’t be fixed with a little push or shove once in their final spots. I still need to reposition the playhouse and get the boxes set in their final locations. Once that is done, I’ll get the sides lined with plastic and filled with soil. The top caps will be installed last so they can stay looking nice. The 2x8’s I’m going to be using for the cap need to dry out anyway before I can cut and stain them.
In the meantime, the kids had plenty of fun playing in their new ‘forts’ yesterday.
That special mission I mentioned at the beginning of the post? They had to go pick up the newest addition to our family… meet Maggie the goldendoodle. An absolute sweetheart and settling in nicely to her new home.
When Norma Jean passed away last fall, the last thing I wanted to think about was getting another dog. It felt like I would be betraying her memory by somehow replacing her. A month or so ago I realized that you don't ever replace a dog, you just make room in your heart for a new one. Love is not finite, it is infinite.
to use up our tanks. Off to Hokels in a few hours to get it swapped. Oh, it's 1am, I need to sleep first. 
