Redwood Stakes As Bender Boards

Our front yard is separated from concrete sidewalk with strip of weed protector covered by redwood shredded bark (aka gorilla hair mulch).When we converted lawn to garden (that full project you can see here ) we decided to keep that strip just refreshing it with new weed protector and mulch. Gorilla hair is known to keep itself in place much better than other types of mulch, but strong wind may blow it away (like you see on the top photo). To solve the problem we needed to install edging. Regular bender board was obvious choice but it required trench digging, which in our case created risk of mulch contamination. So we proceeded with trench-less solution. Two pictures above show fragment of our yard edge BEFORE and AFTER project completion.

Home depot sells several types of garden edging. But, alas, what we found was either chip, plastic and flimsy, or too expensive (we needed about forty feet). Eventually redwood grade stakes came to our attention. Eight such boards and small can of wood finish were only items we bought for the task. Other items (nails, waterproofing, glue) were leftovers of previous projects.

First I covered five boards with wood finish. I did not sand boards before finishing (some roughness is OK for this case).

Rest of boards I used to make twenty stakes (one stake per two feet of edging): ten inches long each.

I applied layer of water seal solution to stakes and painted boards.

Regular hammer was too light for the job. Six pounds engineering hammer came in handy.

To install each board I performed next set of steps:

• Applied some glue to the top of each stake.
• Put board on four stakes.
• Drilled through the board holes in places with stakes underneath .
• Fastened board to stakes with nails (3 1/2 inches ).

One weekend was enough to complete the task : first day couple of hours for painting, making stakes and waterproofing; second day couple more hours for installation.

That way I ended whole project of converting lawn to garden.

Did I say "ended"? There are always more things to do: need to cover nails heads with anti rust coating before rainy season starts.