Welcome to The Yardstead!

I had some left over pine 1x8 8ft long boards, so I decided to use them for our garden beds.  The wood isn't pressure treated, and the boards aren't really very sturdy, so I don't really expect them to last more than a couple of seasons.  As you can see in the above picture, I used 3 boards to make each bed.  One 1x8 was cut in half to make the ends, and the other 8ft boards comprise the sides.  I cut some 6 inch long pieces of 2x4 for backing in the corners where the boards are screwed together.  I did'nt want to use pressure treated lumber, because I'm afraid the chemical treatment of the boards, could leach into the soil and eventully contaminate our plants.  This may not be a real danger, but I'd rather be safe than poisoned.  I had recently brought in a load of top soil to fill some holes in the yard, so I used a bit to fill the bottom 2 inches of the beds.  The quality of the top soils was pretty bad (mostly sand and small mulch shavings) so I filled the beds the rest of the way with some good compost from the pile in the background of the picture above.