Progress on the Planting Beds

With some help from my brother in law and Kristi, we've finished two of the four (maybe three?) beds. We decided to build smaller 4x6 beds instead of the longer 4x12 beds, and so far we have been very happy with the results. Here are some pix of our progress

Those are 12-foot red douglas fir 2x12 boards from Home Depot. Actually much nicer than I would have expected. Aidan helped with the lindseed oil staining. 

Tommy with the boards after the staining was done.

We let the board sit out in the sun for a few days to soak up the staining oil before building the planting beds.

Mike and I built the first box and dug out the ground to make it level. We discovered why they call out town Rockville in the process... 

Kristi and I built the second bed together today. So far they are looking great!

For each of these 4x6 beds we needed:

1. 40' of 2x12 boards. We used red douglas fir and stained it with lindseed oil before cutting and assembling the beds.
2. eight 90º Decking Brackets. 
3. two 2x4's (8 foot), which are cut in half and used as corner posts. The ends of the posts are cut at a 45º angle to a point and hammered into the ground with a mallet. Then, with the lower box in place, a level the box and drive a decking screw through the corner bracket into the post to keep it level. Also, the posts could be cut to be flush with the edge of the bed, but we're keeping them tall for now since they could be used for building a cold frame, bug netting in the spring, or as a support for a trellis for climbing plants. 
4. 3" Decking screws
5. Lots of elbow grease to dig out the ground (there were tons on rocks the size of fists!)

Once filled with soil (soon) these beds should last 5 - 7 years. Using the decking brackets also will make it easy to replace any boards that might rot out before then.

Progress - with some help.

So we made a trip to the Despot (aka Home Depot) and picked up some pretty nice red douglas fir boards. Our shopping list included:

The damage. (to the wallet)

12 12-ft 2x12 Douglas Fir (untreated, natural - for the sides)
10 8-ft 2x4 pine studs (for stakes/supports)
2 gal boiled linseed oil
a new cordless drill
8 corner mount decking fasteners
2 lengths of 4-ft aluminum flat stock
rags, etc etc

not including the drill, it came out to about $300 in materials.

Once home, we laid out all the boards and started staining it with linseed oil. Aidan was happy to help.

Aidan was eager to help treat the wood with Linseed Oil.

After about 2 days of staining, and letting the linseed dry, I think we're ready to get started on breaking ground. Kristi and I changed the plans a bit though: instead of two 4x12-ft beds we are going to go for four to six smaller beds (4x6). The reason being that the hill is more of a slope than I realized - so by breaking up the beds we will get a better "terracing" effect once it's done.

Tommy thinks the wood smells funny.

Planning our Garden

We've started planning our garden - to start we'll go with two 2x12 raised beds, surrounded by 3-4 feet of walking space for potted plants, wheel barrels, etc. Eventually it will be fenced in too (before we start planting next spring).

The planned spot for the garden is in the open space between two huge evergreens.

I'm completely new to gardening, so a fair amount of reading of resources on the net was needed before we get started.

Here's a list of the links so far:

http://eartheasy.com/grow_raised_beds.htm

http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2011/03/benefits-and-construction-of-raised.html

http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeandgarden/2011/02/build-your-own-raised-flowervegetable-bed/

http://home.comcast.net/~bcballard/garden/16-raisedbeds.html

http://thefoodproject.org/sites/default/files/DIY-bag-manual-2012_2.pdf

Building the raised beds is one thing - but can't forget the soil. We'll probably buy ours from a local landscaping supply, it's much cheaper than buying it "by the bag" from Home Depot. We use CTI Mulch & More in the Rockville area - they are great. (but be warned: they will dump the soil on your driveway unless you ask them to haul it into your backyard, which costs extra).

According to this online calculator, for a 4 x 12 x 24 raised planting bed, we'll need about 96 cubic feet of soil per bed, or ~3.5 cubic yards of soil. They also recommend a 60% mix of top soil, 30% compost and 10% "soil-free growing mix" that contains peat moss, perlite and/or vermiculite. Ordering this from CTI will cost us $26 per cubic yard of topsoil - plus their topsoil is already mixed with compost. So about 90% of our planting bed fill should consist of this material, or ~6.3 yards worth. That will end up costing us ~$163. Add in 10%  (9.6 cu ft) peat moss will add another $31 (Home Depot). So, altogether the soil will run us just under $200 - or about $100 per planting bed. (Compare that to purchasing all the soil at Home Depot, it would have cost us ~$440 if we bought it "by the bag").