Deck Box, Part 2

One of the nice things about just posting pictures of projects is that the mistakes don't show up much.  But there always are some.  For example...

The tall framed part at the lower end had 2 metal rods pounded down through holes I drilled.  It worked well.  However, when I went to attach the first of the long boards along the side, I discovered a surprise.  Attaching "2x" boards (which are actually only 1.5") usually requires 3" screws.  Well, when I put the first one in, it went about 2" and stopped dead (actually stripping the hole).  Baffled, I stopped and looked at it for a couple minutes. 

 Oh no!  I had placed the metal rod too close to the end of the board and the screw was reaching it.  I measured carefully and decided a 2.25" screw wouldn't reach the metal rod.  Not as much holding power, so I used extras.  And exterior wood adhesive.  If that doesn't hold, I'll have to fashion an angled metal fastener on the outside of the corner to reinforce it.  Which will remind me of my error forever, LOL!

You can JUST see the little dot of the metal bar on the top right of  the picture.  All I had to do was drill the holes 1" further from the end of the boards... 

But I did make some more progress on the box today.  The box has existing soil level at the high end and none at the bottom.  Since the soil is poor, I decided to dig it deeper at the top and move it to the lower end.  That will leave me with about 6" to fill with better soil, and the hostas I intend to plant there don't have deep roots, so that should work fine.

Unfortunately, that poor soil is also rock-hard.  So I soaked the upper soil for an hour (yesterday) and attacked it today with my leverage fork.  What fun!  It was both still hard AND muddy.  I was able to dig up about 4" of it and move it to the lower area, but what a MESS!  And I need to do more digging tomorrow.  No point in leaving bad soil near the surface.

 Then I can fill it with topsoil  and plant some leftover annual coleus and impatiens there for what's left of this season.  I'll move the hostas from the front to this new box in October when the annuals die back.

Then I can get back to that chicken-wire garden enclosure to use next year.