I'm going to show you how to build a garden bed.
Now, it's a good idea to put a garden bed in your back yard as it's a wonderful feature.
And it's also a good opportunity to put the best topsoil available in your garden bed
so your plants get the best nutrients.
It's a good idea to take into account where your garden bed's located, the sun, the shade,
and the type of plants you're going to plant in your garden bed.
So the tools I need for this job are digging tools, power tools, of course our drill bits
and all important safety equipment, our fixings, our cleats, and our sleepers.
I've also got my measuring equipment for our set out.
We've got our spray, our tape measure, a pencil, a string line, and our roofing square.
The first step in the process is to mark out our set out.
We're going to use the sleepers to mark it up and we're also going to use our concrete
as a guide to do our set out.
We're going to take our measurement from this end and then we're going to go up the other
end, take a measurement there and make sure it's the same measurement.
Then we know that our garden bed will be square and then cut our end pieces.
Now, we've got our measurement for our end piece, we're going to go ahead and cut it
to length.
It's also important to remember, too, that whenever you're cutting timber, always remember
to use the safety equipment.
We know that the other end's going to be the same measurement, so we can go ahead and cut
that piece too.
Now that we've got our pilot hole drilled, we're just going to put some temporary screws
in there to hold it in position so it doesn't move around for the rest of our set out.
Now that we've got this end temporarily fixed in, it's advisable to get your roofing square
and then just check the square.
We've got the rough set out of our garden bed.
We want this plant to stay in our garden bed.
So, for aesthetic reasons, we're going to make the same distance from that plant to
the edge of our garden bed the same distance as this.
So once you've got your measurement, just grab some marking paint, take your measurement
off your tree, and then just do a little mark on the ground there.
Because we're going to have a joint in the middle of our garden bed and our sleepers,
for aesthetic reasons it's advisable to put the joint in the center.
So now I'll take a measurement from that end to that end, divide it by two, that will give
us our center measurement.
So now that we've got our measurement, we're going to undo our temporary screws.
Now I'm lucky that our lengths of timber are long enough, we don't have to cut them to
give us the equal distance that we need, but you may need to cut yours.
Now that we've got this end in position, we're just going to throw a temporary screw in there.
Now that we've got our temporary screw in there, we're just going to make sure it's
square.
Now I'm happy that that's square, we're going to go ahead and put our length down that side
there.
Now that we've got our sleepers in positions for our markup, it's important to go and check
that each corner is square again.
Once you've done this corner, just go and repeat the process on all four corners.
So now grab some marking paint, just do a few marks on the outside of your sleepers
so you know where to dig.
Now that you've got your marks on the ground, just go ahead and remove the sleepers.
A good tip for removing your sleepers is memorize where they're going to go so when you have
to put them back, each piece goes in the exact place.
So we're going to leave our sleepers 50 mil out the ground so I know grass will grow back
into the garden bed.
So now we're going to go ahead, remove the glass, dig down to the depth we need, and
also remove our concrete.
I'm going to use a mallet just to grub the grass back and the soil so I can get under
the concrete slab to lever it up.
Now that we've levered it, grab a sledge hammer or a lump hammer, go around and try and break
up the concrete.
Now that we've broken up our concrete, grab your crowbar and go ahead and remove the concrete.
Now that we've removed our concrete, we're going to go ahead and remove the grass and
dig the soil down to our required depth.
So they got 50 mil of the sleeper protruding out the ground.
Now that we've got our garden bed dug to our required depth, it's time to go ahead and
screw our ends together and then drop them into position.
I'm going to put it together on the grass and then move it in.
Now I'm going to use batten screws to fix it together.
I'm going to use two screws at the bottom on both sides.
Now that we've got both sides fixed in, we're going to place it in position.
It's quite awkward to lift so I've got my friend Liz to come and give me a hand.
Once you've got it in, then you repeat the process for the other end.
Now that we've got our sleepers in position, it's time to go and set up our string lines
so we can get our sleepers straight.
A good little tip when setting up your string lines is just screw a screw on each end just
to tie your string line off to.
So now we've got our string line set up, we're going to go about pulling our sleepers out
to the straight line and then hit our stake in to fix to our sleepers.
So we've got our stakes in that we're fixing the sleepers to.
We put four galvanized screws in each stake.
Once you've got that in, then go and repeat the process on the other side.
So now that we've got our center stakes in, we're going to go ahead and put another four
stakes in.
You'll put them in as required for your garden bed.
That's how you build a garden bed.
Obviously, you backfill up to the sleepers, plant it out with your plants and flowers,
and that's how you go about building a wonderful feature for your home.