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Building Outdoor Structures will show you how to:
- Choose durable materials
- Build arbors and pergolas
- Make and install gates
- Design an elegant gazebo
- Construct sturdy retaining walls
- Improve your garden with raised beds
- Create paths and steps
From the Introduction
There's a little bit of woodworker in every gardener, starting with the first twig used to skewer a seed packet. I began building wooden structures for our family garden 20 years ago. I didn't know much about horticulture or carpentry, but my ignorance was superseded by my enthusiasm. Consequently, I made my share of mistakes. I built retaining walls with untreated barn timbers that rotted after a season. To make arches, I joined wooden segments with plywood splines; the plywood speedily delaminated. The 2X4 borders around our vegetable bed heaved because of inadequate drainage, and out impatiens languished in too-shallow planters I built. One day the building inspector even showed up to inform me that the 400 feet of scrolled picket fence I had just built around our property was a foot too high.
The craftsman in me was chagrined by these failures, but the knowing farmer inside just shrugged. After all, disappointment is a perennial visitor to any adventuruous gardener, who knows that this year's disaster lays the foundation for next year's bumper crop.
Success in my endeavors often was as unexpected as my failures - the grapevine that covered the arbor I built in just two years, the trellis that cast eerie shadows by night when a lantern was placed inside. Encouraged by the victories, I continued to adorn our little Eden. Eventually the place began to teeter dangerously on the brink of looking like a miniature theme park, plunked down mysteriously on a suburban side street.
Carpentry eventually became my career, whereas gardening remained a hobby. Though my enjoyment of woodworking has evolved as my skills and tools have grown, I have rarely again experienced the thrill of seeing those early garden structures pop up in the landscape. Unencumbered by the finicky tolerances of indoor carpentry, and without a client to please, I was free to conjure up a design and execute it in a single Saturday. Wood, with its moderate cost and yielding nature, was the perfect material for such impulsive escapades. More often than not, the results were satisfying. In the season that followed, I watched with pleasure as my creations posed against the shifting backdrops of summer verdure, autumn color, and winter white.
Building Outdoor Structures starts at the beginning of the building process with instructions for planning and everything you need to know before you build. You'll learn how to choose tools that are right for the job and materials that will endure. Once you know the basics, you'll learn the nuts and bolts of building outdoor structures, from foundations and framing to finishes.
But the heart of the book deals with the structures themselves, from simple borders to more involved projects like arbors and trellises. You'll find general building guidelines for each type of structure, as well as detailed step-by-step instructions and photos illustrating how to build a basic example of each structure.
This book includes general construction information, accompanied by step-by-step photos to make the instructions easier to follow. There are also Pro Tips, Trade Secrets, and What Can Go Wrong sidebars so you get even more information. To show you some of the many ways you might incorporate these projects into your home or your clients' homes, we've created a Design Options spread at the end of each project chapter. There you'll find different looks that go beyond the construction basics of the text and show you what else is possible.
It is my hope that Building Outdoor Structures will spare you some of my painful mistakes and point the way to garden structures that embody those much-sought-after virtues of good building: firmness, commodity, and delight.
Contents
Introduction. Tools and Materials. Building Outdoors. Borders and Steps. Retaining Walls. Raised Beds. Fences. Gates. Arbors, Pergolas, and Trellises. Gazebos. Appendix 1: Planning Outdoor Structures. Appendix 2: Choosing Wood. Index.
About the Author
Scott McBride has been a gardener and a professional carptenter since 1974. He is a contributing editor of Fine Homebuilding magazine and the owner of Mustard Seed Master Builders in Sperryville, Virginia. |
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