Multi-Level Decks in North Fairmount, OH

North Fairmount (ZIP 45225) gardens are small and packed, often one deep bed wrapping the edge of the yard beside the deck. A bed like that gets trampled when someone steps into it to weed or pick. A narrow lower strip along the deck edge fixes that.

On a small lot, every level of a deck has to pull its weight. A second level can be as little as a strip of boards wrapping one corner. It adds almost no floor, and it makes the garden next to the deck far easier to look after.

Along the side facing the bed, a strip thirty inches wide sits one step below the main floor, following the bed around the corner. From it, you are at the edge of the soil with most of the bed in reach, since a bed about two feet deep can be worked from one side. The edge of the main deck behind you is at a comfortable sitting height, so thinning seedlings or picking tomatoes can happen sitting down. A kneeling pad and a basket fit on the strip with room to spare.

The strip gives the bed a clean edge too. The deck boards stop a finger width short of the soil, a wood or stone edging holds the bed in, and mulch stays put. Rain drains off the strip into the bed, where it is wanted, and the frame stands on short posts clear of the soil. The strip runs only as long as the bed, with a hose bib at its end and a hook for a basket. Its end near the house stops short of where roof water falls, since these houses often have no gutters.