Vegetable Garden Planter

Materials Needed:

6- 8' Landscape Timbers

16- 3/8"x4" lag screws

Cost: $20-25

Tools Needed:

Saw (I used my circular saw for the first cut or two then switched to my miter saw which worked a lot easier.)

Drill with 1/4" bit and 1" spade bit

Impact driver or impact wrench with a 9/16 socket for the lag screws

Tape Measure

Safety Glasses

1) Measure and cut 24 inches off of one end on each landscape timber. These 2 foot lengths will form the ends of the planter, the remaining 6 feet will be our sides. It doesn't need to be exact, but make it close. All my landscape timbers measured 96 1/2" long so I made my cuts at 24 1/4". You can adapt as necessary, just make sure you cut all the lengths the same to keep everything square.

 2)  I laid my boards out so they interlock at the corners from one layer to the next. Lay one layer out on the ground and then put the second row on top of that. I used a 1" spade bit to bore where the head of the lag screw will be so it can sit cleanly inside the hole for when we add the next layer (shown in the picture below). Next use the 1/4" bit to make pilot holes for the lag screws. I used 2 screws for each board, one on each end.

 I don't have an impact wrench, but using my impact driver and the right adapters, screwing down these big lag screws was no problem.

 3) Repeat the same process of laying down the last level of your timbers on top of the first two. Make sure you note approximately where your screws were from the previous level so you do not end up trying to put one screw on top of the other. When its all done this is what you have!

 4) Flip it over! Once you flip it over you have a finished planter with no visible screws that looks great! If you really want to get detailed with it you can buy some solid stain to finish the ends that were sawed off. I oriented my boards so the stained sides are all pointed outwards so its not visible, but if you are very particular, that's a simple step to add on.

 We used this planter to start our first vegetable garden! We are starting small, but hope to be expert gardeners by the end of the summer.

This picture shows one of my (Zach) upcoming projects for this summer, the deck.

Feel free to let us know if you have any questions. 

House Tour!

Entryway

Entryway storage

 

 

These are the pictures of our house from the listing. As you can see, the house was basically a blank slate after the builders removed their furniture for staging the home.   The first few days started with little projects adding finishes to the house that might normally go without notice. Things like towel holders, shower curtain rods, even toilet paper holders in the bathrooms were not in the house when we bought it. After a few days of working on the small details, we were ready to move on to bigger and better projects.

-Zach

     

FIRST BLOG POST!

OUR NEW HOME!

Freshly dried paint or recently sealed hardwood floors aren’t good smells to most people, but to us it smells fantastic!   It’s that new house smell! We finally moved in on April 15, 2013.  Our house is a new build- 2 bedroom 2 bath, 3 car garage, and an unfinished basement.  Since it is a new build, its basically a blank slate with no landscaping, builder’s beige, and limited character.  As we are just beginning our careers, we filled it with our college furniture and plan on slowly building and updating room by room!  After reading many blogs to get ideas for our own home (and just running the household in general); my boyfriend Zach and I have decided to start this blog. We’re very excited to share with you our projects as new DIYers!!!

So who are we?  Well we both are originally from Wisconsin, but now live in Minnesota.  Go Packers!  I’m Rebecca, friends call me Becca or Bec.  I am a recent college graduate and started my career as a registered nurse about a year ago.  I absolutely love nursing and my job, but have come to see that nursing school had taken so much of my free time that I had no hobbies. (That’s where the gardening, home decorating, cooking, etc. came in)  I also became an auntie about a year ago to a gorgeous baby girl and spend much of my time traveling to visit her.  

  Zach, my boyfriend, is quite possibly the nicest person you could ever meet.  He has definitely helped us get accustomed to the new neighborhood by flagging down every neighbor that passes by to stop and talk.  It makes me laugh because he goes out to get a project done and spends 75% of the time talking to neighbors, and the other 25% doing actual work.  (lol)  Zach’s most recent career adventure has been starting an electrician apprenticeship (which will be very nice when we finish the basement).  He also works part time at the local Applebee’s to make some extra cash.  He spend most of his free time with me, working on projects around the home, or fishing. (If it was his choice this is all he would do :) )  He’s also come to be quite the handyman.  His projects began as idea’s from me; advising him to “make” his Christmas presents and now we have bigger and better ideas  for our new home! 

            Last, but not least, we have our little Brady.  He’s our 6 year old Bichon/Maltese mix puppy.  He enjoys long walks on our sidewalks, basking in the sun, and puppy massages.  He’s quite spoiled and we spend much, much time with him!