7 Uses for Landscape Timbers

While natural stone has become the go-to landscape material for many projects, landscape timbers can be a great alternative. They are light, inexpensive and are versatile, making them an outdoor building material that most DIY landscapers can use easily for backyard projects. Here are seven ideas on how to use landscape timbers in your landscaping in the upcoming season.

  1. Flower bed. Landscape timbers can quickly create a raised flower bed anywhere in your yard. Three or four stacked make a shallow flower bed that can be installed in just a few hours.
  2. Edging. Want to create an edge or border for your yard or garden? Use landscape timbers to create a wood border for a clean appearance.
  3. Retaining wall. Need to stabilize a slope or want to create a tiered planting area on a hill? Landscape timbers can be used to build small retaining walls around your property.
  4. Hillside steps. Carve steps into your hillside and frame them with landscape timbers. Fill the interior with gravel for natural steps up your slope.
  5. Fencing. Timbers can make a simple wood fence for around your garden or as a border to your lawn or driveway.
  6. Planters. You can build smaller planters or raised planters for starting your garden with some spare timbers.
  7. Build a pergola. If you are handy with a hammer, landscape timbers can be used to build a beautiful pergola for your patio area.

There are so many ways to use landscape timbers in your landscaping. Visit your local landscape supplier to check out the different options in timbers available and bring a load home for your next landscape project.

Posted on behalf of:
Green Brothers Earth Works
680 Franklin Rd, SE
Marietta, GA 30067
(770) 590-8220

Elegant Landscape Timbers for Stability and Style

Landscape timbers are heavy-duty wooden planks that have a variety of landscaping applications. These elegant building materials can serve an ornamental purpose in exterior settings, but are also ideal for building sturdy and functional outdoor structures. The secret behind the durability of landscape timbers is the pressure-treated or micronized-treated wood. Industrially treated landscape timbers contain chemical preservatives that make them rot-resistant and insect-resistant. Softwood timbers are manufactured from the heartwood of cedar and redwood trees and hardwood oak timbers are also common.

Landscape timbers are able to withstand external conditions, making them an ideal material for decks, boardwalks, garden bridges, picnic tables and outdoor benches. Stationary structures like sheds and children’s playhouses that are in permanent contact with the ground are susceptible to decay and wood-boring insects, but these problems are avoided with hardwearing landscape timbers.

The weathered look of some landscape timbers and the range of colors and textures available have a definite appeal for decorative wood projects. Smaller, lightweight timbers are perfect for crafting striking lawn ornaments like planters, wishing wells or lighthouses. In green landscapes, cherrytone landscape timbers provide a pleasing contrast when stacked for raised garden beds or used for terraced stairs. Wood stain and varnish can be used to further embellish the timbers.

Important functional features such as retaining walls and garden edging are commonly engineered using landscape timbers. When used as edging, landscape timbers help organize a landscape, creating neat boundaries, boxes or shaped borders around lawns, trees, driveways and shrubs. Timber edging protects foliage from damage during mowing and cuts down maintenance. Timber edging can be laid in symmetrical, repetitive or interconnected designs to create balance, draw the eye to focal features, add formality, or suggest rhythm and unity within a landscape.

Whether you are envisioning a raised pond, an attractive post fence or a simple sign post, versatile landscape timbers will add character, stability and style to your woodwork project.