by Great Danish on Wed Sep 09, 2009 11:29 am
Isabella, my husband built these about a year ago. He used landscape timbers, which he notched on the ends so they would fit together snuggly. It took most of a whole bundle from Home Depot for our 3 beds (one was not in the shot). They are 8 feet long- so you can cut some in half and make the garden 8' by 4' and stack them as high as you like. He drilled round holes through each end of each timber – once they were stacked together he ran a piece of rebar through each corner to secure them well. We used plain old dirt to fill the bottom half, it takes quite a bit, you could use cinderblocks or anything to fill it up until you have about a foot left for the garden soil. I would recommend lining the sides with plastic (trash bags) for a couple of reasons. One to protect the wood from the damp soil and secondly to keep what ever they treat the wood with from leaching back into your garden soil. You can get a 5/8th's wood bit and 1/2" rebar (which cuts easily with a hack saw) pre-cut to various lengths at Home Depot or Lowe’s. One other tip – measure to make sure you have room to run your mower between the beds before you put them in place. I bet you will enjoy yours as much as I do mine.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Jen