Bench and raised beds

We worked in a garden for a return customer this past week. Rarely do I get gardening work like this as a handyman/builder. Very pleased to build this bench and raised garden beds and paint them purple!

This project came about from a trip to Italy my customer made last year. She returned with these beautiful 2 x 2 Italian hand painted tiles. The tiles were to be used as an accent in her master bathroom, never happened. So she had these tiles for about a year and really wanted to use them for accents. Finally we added 4 of the tiles to the purple garden beds and 2 of them to the garden bench.

Here is the 12 foot long purple garden bench. I used twice dried pressure treated lumber that is ready to paint right from the lumber yard. The lumber is called Cox Lumber it is not sold in the big box stores (you need to dry their lumber 4-6 months before painting). It is expensive a 2 x 6 x 12 costs $4 more a board to give you an ideal. We primed the bench and them painted with a very high quality paint from Sherwin Williams.

When I took these photos it was 97 degrees, the purple paint was too hot to sit on. The only draw back I could see on this beautiful bench, I love colorful things anyway.

The previous photos did not show the accent tiles I routed into the bench as show above, one on each end of the bench seat. First I made a template with a scrap of plywood and secured it and routed in the cut out to install the tiles. Set them in latex caulk and painted it in.

Above shows the higher quality of the Cox lumber, barely any knots to speak of. One might ask at what angle did we tilt back the bench backrest, it was 15%. You can see the outriggers under the bench with the back supports bolted together with 2 1/2 inch galvanized carriage bolts. Everything is mounted on 4 - 4 x 6s concreted in 2 foot deep. Very comfortable to sit in believe me!

Above is the raised garden beds, one is 2' 8" x 16' and the other is 2'8" x 20'. They are made with Cox lumber 2 x 10s staked in the ground with hidden 2 x 3 stakes. We lined the inside of the boxes with left over rubber roofing to keep the chemicals from the treated lumber from leaching into the soil. The tops were made with 2 x 6s cut down to 4 1\/2 inches wide and screwed down about every 10 inches. We regraded the site by hand and added the creek gravel and medium river rocks in the foreground. The slate patio had been there a long time, the space was not really used with no furniture to sit on.

Here we go the job complete it just needs plants and water.