#so 24 can fit two 10s but they're not as obvious. but it's a multiple of 4 so i trust it a bit more

[eggmeralda]

okay but I am genuinely so unwell about numbers and dates and ages and time and years etc. so I'm blaming all my bad luck on the number 23

#got so paranoid about it that i didn't talk to anyone for the last few weeks and i haven't applied for a job and i'm honestly not doing #anything until i'm safely 24 #idk what 24's gonna be like but it's got a 4 in it so that's a good sign #but then again 14 had a 4 in it and that was a terrible age #but tbf it was a 4 + a 10 which is like. my fav number and my least fav number. so the year just malfunctioned #first 6 months good second 6 months bad #so 24 can fit two 10s but they're not as obvious. but it's a multiple of 4 so i trust it a bit more #4 x 6. idk my feelings on 6 but it's never really done anything too bad to me so yeah. 24 is the safe zone #i blame everything on the number 23 and also my friend's awful ex girlfriend #OKAY SO LIKE i was reading coronation street youtube comments the other day #and people were talking about how characters like terry duckworth and mike baldwin were kind of prats before but then they #had some significantly bad experience and after that they became Absolute prats #like basically what caused their villain origin stories #and i was like oh my god am i gonna turn out like them?? is my friend's ex girlfriend responsible for my villain arc?? #and i have felt myself becoming more negative and unhappy and cynical and bitter over the past few months #and i was like fuckkkkkk no i can't enter my mike baldwin terry duckworth era #bc before whenever a remotely bad thing happened i would just disappear and go back to telling myself there is nothing good with the world #so like for every job i never got and for every time i put something in the group chat and no one replied and every time i made something #and no one cared about it i would just sink deeper into some hole of hatred at the world #i mean. the rsd. like I'd still react to stuff in that way when i was younger and happier but at least back then I'd also #wave at cool clouds and smile at people in public and be like ''fuck i woke up too early and now i Have to take a photo of the sunrise'' #but now i don't do any of that I'm just some bitter cynical bitch who hates everything #so yeah. my 2024 resolution was to reclaim the whimsy i lost at the end of 2022. and so far it's not really going well but at least I'm not #23 anymore #ramble

[oh-he-grows]

After two weeks of stressing and planning and screwing around in chief architect, I came to the obvious conclusion that I should just make raised beds out of basic-ass pine boards. Here's all the research I did so you don't have to agonize over your potential project. All prices are from Lowes. Below is a cost analysis of my project, which would be for 512' long of raised beds (for a growing area of 1,000 sq ft). I had in-ground beds last year but a massive influx of bunny rabbits ate everything that they could, so I'm looking to lift my plants off the ground a bit.

I was originally planning on using pressure treated 2x8s, but soon got sidetracked into cedar fenceposts and pressure treated landscape timbers, so here's what I eventually found:

Cedar fenceposts are great for a small scale garden. If you need 1 or 2 raised beds, I would recommend cedar fenceposts for cost and longevity purposes. If one piece gets damaged somehow, it's cheap and easy to throw in a replacement. They're incredibly cheap relative to other options, resistant to rot and moisture, beautiful, and can easily fit in almost any vehicle which can't be said for the dimensional lumber. Here's a build video for the most elegant fencepost raised bed I found. Downsides: the fenceposts are very thin, barely half an inch thick-- you can't sit on them or put too much pressure on them. They also require more bracing on the corners and in the middle, as well as a top-strip, as shown below. This is factored into the "Specialty Hardware Cost", and is calculated with pressure treated pine- using cedar for these pieces would look nicer (as below), but are much more expensive and some dimensions are out of stock. They're also a lot of work at scale. For my plan (to look good), I would have to cut off the dogear notch at the top for 280 boards individually, and put four screws each into 280 boards individually, which is an obscene amount of labor and hardware.

Next up are Pressure Treated Landscape Timbers, which I first saw from a Millennial Gardner video where the tagline was "lumber dealers HATE this trick!". Which may be true, but screw manufacturers LOVE this trick. They look really pretty and the wood is extremely cheap, but they're short individually, so you would need to stack 3-4 on top of each other to get the look I'm going for. Most importantly though, these need long screws (50 cents to a dollar each) to connect two boards to each other every 24-48 inches PER layer, and additional rebar if it's being used as a retaining wall, which would be another $4 on every side. The wood is cheap and rot resistant, but the hardware costs creep in.

Cedar boards are too expensive. Flat-out, they cost so much money it's insane. nearly $50 for a single 8' 2"x8" is inordinately expensive for a project like this. For the price of one miniature cedar bed, you could get multiple metal beds that will last decades instead. The final deliberation was between Yellow Pine and Pressure Treated Yellow Pine, and I'm deciding to go with regular untreated pine. The price is an extra 30% - 50% cost, and untreated pine should last (outside of the pacific northwest or florida) for 3-5 years without issues, while pressure-treated could last 10 or more depending on the conditions. Pressure treated boards leaching their chemicals into your food is mostly overstated, as arsenic hasn't been used in the process for 20 years now; although, I understand the reservations about using any chemical so close to food supply. The modern process apparently uses copper-based solutions and various fungicide for copper-resistant strains. I've included two cans of boiled linseed oil in the hardware costs for this to help protect them further, and I might find some kind of plastic or other barrier to protect the wood from direct soil contact to keep them going longer. I think I'm going with the 2x12s as well over the 2x8s, just because I like the idea of a taller bed if I'm just using one board. It's more expensive for sure, and the only thing I'm still deciding on. For the most part it's purely aesthetic, but some plants would prefer a bed larger than 8 inches, so that's why I'm leaning towards 12". It turns out that with the bulk discount that comes with 50 boards, 68 2"x8"s are the same price as 34 2"x12"s, but 4 inches taller. I might have to get some additional 2x4s for corner bracing, but this might be the way. I hope this info helps someone build a raised bed and start gardening, or help their garden become more successful (for cheaper). If I got anything wrong or if there are alternatives let me know, I'd love to hear anybody's thoughts.

#gardenblr #organic gardening #time to grow #raised bed #garden #container gardening #gardening