Simple things make me happy, like knocking up this frame to make a planting bed for the allotment. I cut the wood to size in my father's back garden then screwed it together down at the allotment. A local builder gutting a roof gave my father a stack of timbers a few years ago so it's good to make use of them.
It's not tanalised (i.e pressure treated to prevent rotting) which I prefer where edibles are concerned. Manufacturers insist that tanalised timber is safe in that regard- after all what harm could result from wood impregnated with deadly toxins?
Going back to my days as a landscape gardener I've always enjoyed simple rugged modes of construction. In the USA it's sometimes referred to as "chainsaw carpentry" though it can be even more basic than that. I have a fond memory of laying some steps into a California hillside, made by cutting railroad ties in half with a two man hand saw.
The rectangle is the way humans have organized their world- beginning in the West and now globally. It's also the way we view the world, as now for example when I write this on a screen and you read it on one. The shortest way from A to B is a straight line they say.
One of the things we experience outdoors and working with nature is that nature doesn't do straight lines. In nature we have patterns- spirals, spheres, branching, webs, nets, waves, cycles et al. I have been on several permaculture courses taught by Aranya, who really knows his onions so to speak. He noted that nature makes these patterns because they are the most efficient ways for nature to organize function, which makes perfect sense. So far example a root system branches to gather the most water and nutrition.
Aranya also observes that humans are intent on making linear systems in a curvy world (or words to that effect). Plug: Aranya's forthcoming book will be about systems and patterns in nature and permaculture.
Going off at a tangent (non-linear thought?) I had a similar realisation at the end of my talk last year at the South London Botanical Institute about hiking in California and Oregon. I had shown around 70 slides of lakes, mountains, streams, trails, woods, flowers and such then rounded it off with a photo taken at the railroad depot in Klamath Falls waiting for the train back to San Fransisco. I say realisation but it was more a remembrance of the shock of returning from Crater Lake to civilization:
