DIY Backyard Make Over Pt 2 How To Build a Raised Flower Box

As you can see it was rough.

But I was able to make a lot of progress, as you can see in my last post.

Even once I was done Baby (my pitbull puppy) was not happy and had me rip out the old flower bed. It was natural wood, which I like, but it was all rotten and needed to go.

I decided to grab a few 6x2 boards from Home Depot. While there I found these useful concrete slated cornerstones. They were extremely inexpensive and well worth it for the time they saved me. Another benefit of the concrete blocks were how I could drive a piece of rebar through them for added support of the box.

If you want to build one of these boxes it's as easy as cutting two boards the same length and two more the same width. Then slide the boards into already placed cornerstones while squaring up the corners. Once done you most likely will need to move some dirt around and do some leveling. Now that everything is level and square- drive the rebar through the centers of the cornerstones.

If you choose to do two levels high, as I did for part of my build, just leave enough rebar exposed out of the cornerstones in the previous step and then repeat the previous step.

Once you have the walls of your flower box done I would recommend adding a ledge. Not only does it really make it look a lot nicer, but it greatly strengthens it as well.

Baby said it was a must!

As you can see in this photo it just doesn’t look right without the ledge and I highly recommend It.

Simply measure the length of the entire box, cut the board, and screw into place. I had some extra 2x6's so I made my ledge two boards high, as you can see.

Now it not only looks like a flower box, but it truly is a flower box. At this point I could have started adding dirt, but I wanted to stain it. I used tinted wood stain. It brushed on easily and smoothly. If your doing this at home remember to go with the grain of the wood. I even used the wood stain on the concrete blocks with no issue.

Once the stain dried I started dumping in my dirt mixture.
One part manure, one part peat moss, and two parts cheap top soil.

It's important to mix it all up. If you add water it helps to ensure you have moist mineral rich soil ready for planting.

It is recommended to use a shovel for this mixing step, however, a hyper puppy will work as well.

The only problem with allowing Baby to help me on the project is she doesn’t know when to stop helping.

I have found eventually she will just tire herself out. And it was just in time for me to run to the best place in the world- Home Depot for the hardest part of the project, picking out the flowers.

Now that the hard part is over simply place and space the plant however you desire.

Don’t forget to get approval from your boss before planting.

Then plant away!

Now that everything almost is done there’s only two more steps.

Take a moment to smell the roses and enjoy your new flower box.

And the final step... Take a well deserved nap.

I have found that after 10 years of heroin active addiction my mind focuses on one single thing, the next fix. If you can learn to keep your mind focused on new things and keep it busy in other areas then it will be easier to overcome addiction. It's my random projects like these that have helped me overcome my own addiction.