Building a new Garden Bed

Because our property provides us a park like environment we have turned a large portion of it into flower gardens.

We planted a few shrubs here last year so today we'll turn it into a real garden bed.

We build this using 4x4's. After measuring we place multiple cuts half way through with a skill saw. Once completed they easily break off with a light tap from a hammer. Next we used a chisel and hammer to smooth out the cut so it will fit snug with an adjoining piece. When finished it looks like this. On to the next one!

Once all the timbers are cut, we put them in place to be sure of a tight fit. Satisfied with the fit we drill some counter sink holes where we'll place these lag bolts. We then drilled 11 additional holes that we will pound this rebar through to secure the bed from runaway lawn mowers.

Now that all our holes are drilled it's time to move a few plants we picked up at the annual plant sale and lay some cardboard down to kill the grass. Thankfully Candy was there to help us!

Next we installed the lag bolts, followed by the rebar. Each of these pieces is about 2-1/2 feet in length and we pound them flush with the landscape timbers.

Now all that's left is to top it off with some mulch and we'll be ready to add additional plants to this garden next year once the cardboard and mulch have taken care of the grass for us.