![Image](http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n290/6oclock/101_0404Large.jpg)
Now, the real pain in the butt was that the ground wasn't level at all, and I wanted the bed to be level so it wouldn't look stupid, so I had to dig trenches where the railroad ties would go. Apparently, this area had been part of the driveway years ago, and I had about six inches of gravel to dig through, just underneath the sod. After a lot of time with a shovel and a level, here's how it looked:
![Image](http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n290/6oclock/101_0407Large.jpg)
Next, we moved the railroad ties into the trenches I had dug. Other than the railroad ties being extremely heavy, this went pretty smoothly, and it all lined up much better than what I expected. Here it is with the first level of ties down.
![Image](http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n290/6oclock/101_0408Large.jpg)
Next, we cut up some of the ties with a chainsaw and stacked them up into the formation that I had planned out. The idea was to build an artificial hill for better drainage. After we got all of them in place, we lined the sides with a layer of painter's plastic, as to try to keep the sand from seeping out through the cracks between the ties. Here's where we're at thus far:
![Image](http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n290/6oclock/101_0414Large.jpg)
We leveled out the dirt in the middle, using a lot of it to fill in the excess space from the holes I'd dug. Next day off I'll be loading up several hundred pounds of sand and gravel from a riverbed to fill it up, and hopefully in a few weeks it will be time to start planting! And here's a bonus pic of my dog Ernie laying in the bed. I think he likes it because the freshly dug ground is cool, so he'd better enjoy that while it lasts!
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
![Image](http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n290/6oclock/101_0417Large.jpg)
Thanks for checking out the thread, and please let me know of any suggestions. I'll keep everyone posted on the progress!
Jova