As we are staying in a rental place we can't dig up the garden, but we do have a large concrete slab outside that we can use to put garden boxes on. We decided to make one box as a prototype. If it worked out well then we'd let the girls grow plants in it and we'd make some more for the main veggie patches.
I popped down to Mitre 10 Mega (our local hardware store) and got the following for the prototype
- 15 planks of treated (H3.2) pine 25mm thick, 150mm wide and 1.2m long (called palings at the store) - $42.90
- 15 blocks of 50mm x 50mm wood cut into rectangles 300mm long - $5.69
- packet of 100 screws for treated pine 57mm long and 8-10mm diameter countersunk ribbed head - $23.16
- #2 Phillips head screwdriver bit for my cordless drill - $4.27
- steel drill bit 3.5mm diameter for drilling pilot holes - $4.29
I wanted to hire a nailgun because hey, it's a nailgun, but Lea talked me into using screws instead. And I actually got 14 planks instead of 15 so I had to go back that afternoon and get an extra one. The drill bit and the screwdriver bit will go into my permanent kit and be used for other projects.
The basic idea behind the boxes is to make a square frame with some of the planks and the rectangles, and then put the rest of the planks across one plane of the square to make a half closed box. The remaining rectangles are used to keep the box off the ground to provide a bit of drainage.
I started by putting one plank on top of two wooden blocks, with the blocks square up against the ends of the plank as shown below. The blocks will act as corner posts of the box and the planks will be fixed into them.
I drilled two pilot holes through each end of the plank into the blocks aiming to keep the drill as perpendicular as possible. Then I popped a screw into each pilot hole and drove them in, holding the plank down to prevent it from shifting.
The wood is soft so it was easy to make sure the heads of the screws went right in and didn't stick out. Once the first plank is down I put another plank next to it, lined it up and repeated the drill and screw process on both sides.
This gave me the first side wall. I was quite proud that it could stand up by itself.
I repeated this with another two planks and two blocks.
Next I stood these two side walls upright with the blocks facing each other and rested a plank on them. The weight and friction of the top plank was enough to support the two side walls while I worked on them.
I made sure the top plank was lined up with the edges of the side walls and the side walls were visibly vertical before attaching the top plank to the wooden blocks on the side walls.
A second top plank followed, and then I turned the partial box upside down and added two planks to the new top again.
I now had a recognisable sand pit.
Next I laid the box down flat, then put the remaining seven planks on top. They fitted with just a small gap between each block which would be drainage channels.
Here I had to take a bit of care since I was attaching the base planks to the sidewall planks which were only 25mm thick. I did not want any bits of screw to stick out either side.
I took the rest of the wooden blocks and laid them out for a base, trying to spread the load across the base planks of the box as much as possible. There's going to be a lot of soil in here. Each block goes across two planks and each plank has a number of blocks supporting it.
And we now have our garden box.
Total time - less than an hour of build
Total cost - $42.90 planks + $5.69 blocks + $0.2316 per screw x 15 planks x 4 screws per plank = $62.50
Look out for part 2 - lining the box, filling with soil and planting stuff.
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