What I've been doing with my time

Dad was here a few weeks ago. Just like mom, he bought me stuff no house can be without. Unlike mom, his gifts generally need power to work. Yes, dad bought me a beginning set of "do it yourself" tools.

So, today I put them to good use. About a week and a half ago, I planted a bunch of seeds for the summer. Now, my yard has at least two rabbit dens and is frequented by deer, so instead of planting enough in the yard to keep them happy I decided to limit my gardening to the deck.

I headed out to Home Depot this morning, and more money than I care to admit later I headed home to try out my new circular saw. I did cheat and have the guy there rip the plywood sheet into 12 inch widths for me, but I did the rest of the cutting myself.

Here are the results:

I custom fit this to an area on my deck that stays sunny till about 4pm. Even took into account the post. I'm rather proud of myself that it all fit together nicely on the dry run and I only had to recut two pieces (and since I cut them too long the first time, I didn't waste any wood).

The bottom piece is a piece of pine, the sides are plywood. Tomorrow, I'll paint them all with an exterior paint and figure out if I want to use my original idea to hold it together or if I want to try brackets. I'll drill some holes in the bottom piece for drainage and use the nice 2x2 pieces I got to raise it off the deck. At 12 inches deep, I'll give it a bottom layer of pebbles for drainage and then add soil.

Hopefully, my plants will be in there by next weekend. The sugar peas are getting a bit big for their starter pots right now.