Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/20/20, 1:42 PM #1

Alan Young
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Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

Alan Young

With no commissions as of late I've had time to do some outdoor projects. This is a set of garden boxes made from leftover T&G cedar I got for free a year or so ago.

It's thin material so the sides bow out a tad-I may add more staked wall supports-But Mrs. Young is happy. She wants lattice work all around the perimeter. Hard to tell but there is chicken wire on the sides without the gate and the current lattice.

I don't have too many before pictures: This is the area after I removed almost ten year old boxes:

I pulled out the top grass surface by hand- then I rented a rototiller to grind up the area. In retrospect I would have been off renting Bobcat or a small back hoe/front end buck etc to move this dirt around-I tried "dragging" the dirt with the rototiller in reverse- I was able to move the dirt but it wasn't very time/effort efficient. I ended up with a flat but totally level yard.

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/20/20, 2:11 PM #2

Kneale Brownson
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Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

kneale brownson

Maybe some concrete form stakes to reinforce the bulging walls? Home Depot is where I've purchased them.

- - -

I’m a fairly spry 82-year-old who had been a reader/participant at WoodCentral since the demise of Badger Pond. I started visiting BP to learn something about finish for a project I’d completed and became hooked on internet forums as a way of increasing my knowledge about all sorts of topics. I have been a moderator for a couple other forums on subjects I enjoy. My interest in woodworking began in the early 1970’s when my wife and I had contractors add to our house near Traverse City, MI, and I ended up doing the trim work to reduce mounting costs. I had no tools. I bought a P-C skilsaw, hammer, screwdrivers and one of those wooden miter boxes with a backsaw. I made trim for windows and doors from one-by lumber and started my woodworking career. At the same time, I started a 50-year career as a ski instructor. I got onto the night shift at a mental hospital so I could ski days, and spent my 30s and 40s with that schedule. I eventually replaced the PC-upside-down-in-a-board with a real table saw and began the purchase of enough equipment to fill a jam-packed 40-foot shipping container we used after we sold our property in Michigan. The ski instructing had taken us to Colorado and we were spending too much on maintaining utilities for two homes. A couple years ago, the dozen years spent at 10,000 feet of elevation was making my body produce too many red blood cells, so we had to leave my “forever” home in the mountains and we moved back to Michigan. Now I have to find myself a shop space for all those tools in the container.

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/20/20, 2:56 PM #3

Barry Irby
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Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

Barry Irby

That's cool! What do you fill them with? Does the lattice provide too much shading? How about a horizontal board on the top to provide lateral stiffness?

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/20/20, 9:20 PM #4

Clint Searl
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Outstanding

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/21/20, 1:14 PM #5

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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I spied it

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

There had to be an Alan touch somewhere in this project........nice gate. What about the nifty gazebo in the back ground? And what are you keeping out of these beds with fence, wire, lattice?

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/21/20, 2:10 PM #6

Michael Farinella
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Yes, I would be concerned ...

Michael Farinella

about sufficient sunlight (trees, fences, buildings, etc).

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/21/20, 2:13 PM #7

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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same concern

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/22/20, 12:38 PM #8

Alan Young
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Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

Alan Young

I basically filled them with the dirt from the left over boxes-A combination of composted manure, topsoil etc. As far as Sunlight-I am not an expert on this arena-Mrs. Young asked for the lattice -That in combination of Chicken wire is put up to keep out Ground Hogs/Wood Chucks that run rampant through our neighborhood.

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/22/20, 12:39 PM #9

Alan Young
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I will check them out-Thanks!

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/22/20, 12:41 PM #10

Alan Young
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Re: I spied it

Alan Young

The Gate was fun!-

The chicken wire and lattice is to keep out Woodchucks that run rampant through our neighborhood.

I'll have a more detailed post on a Woodchuck prevention project later today or this week...

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/22/20, 12:51 PM #11

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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critter exclusion

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

That fence is high enough to keep deer out. Woodchucks can climb but likely will not climb something half as high.

Two strands of electric fence 4 and 8" off the ground excludes coons, skunks and woodchucks. I am putting mine up today to surround the corn. Could be easier to deal with than the lattice fortress.

If you are in the north with low sun that lattice is going to put shade on the garden most of the day. Lettuce will grow under this condition but beans won't.

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/22/20, 1:52 PM #12

Alan Young
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Mrs. Young is reviewing the situation :^)

Re: Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

6/22/20, 2:35 PM #13

Barry Irby
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Re: critter exclusion

Barry Irby

I have had at least ten wood chucks in my yard since I have lived here. I learned to catch them in a Hav a Heart trap and Insert a tiny piece of lead in their ear and they go away.

Insert the lead with a gun, preferably a .22 short because it is fairly quiet and don't scare the neighbors and then they go away in the trash.

(Grew up on a Dairy farm and learned to hate groundhogs.)

Outdoor Project #1 Garden Boxes

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