After the month-long frustrating adventure that was irrigation, I moved on to bed construction. That’s when I figured out that nothing would be easy or would go as planned, and I had planned thoroughly.
I went round and round with bedding boarder materials. Landscaping bricks, red bricks, cinder blocks, cedar boards, pin boards, treated or untreated, and eventually settled on treated landscaping timbers. Those are the ones that have the curved sides and flat tops. I chose these because they seemed to strike the balance between labor, cost and durability. In order to make them last longer, they are treated, and the main reason why my garden will not be considered organic for a very long time.
After all of the drafting I did to lay out the yard, calculating the required number of timbers was simple: 120. One of the Home Depot websites and some other Youtube videos recommended securing the timbers together with galvanized spikes. So I also calculated the needed number of spikes and headed to Home Depot to procure the materials.
Purchasing 120 8′ long timbers was an interesting experience especially in fitting them in my 6′ long pickup truck bed and driving home. I could only fit 60 at a time. The real frustration came during the first load though. I dumped it on the way home on a busy road. Wood does not stick to plastic bed liner. I got some help from some other drivers and planned a different route home.
This was the pile after I went back for the remainder.
