Grow Vegetables in Your Backyard

This post will show you how to make your own plantar boxes and fill them with good organic soil, all on the cheap! 

I've always wanted to grow my own food, and this summer Im actually starting! The first day after I got home from school my dad and I went to Home Depot and got some pressure treated lumber to build a couple plantar boxes for our backyard. We decided on boxes that were 6 feet long, 2 feet deep, and 1 foot high, all made out of 2x12 lumber.

This size made buying the wood nice too because we could just get two 12 foot lengths to make all four 6 foot pieces, and then one 8 foot piece to make the four 2 foot side pieces. We also got one 8 foot 2x4 to use as bracing material for the corners. All of the wood cost about 90 dollars. 

Once we had the wood, we started construction!

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Backyard Rocketry (2013)

The backyard is where all the cool projects happen. Projects where things might start on fire, move at high speed, make loud noises, or otherwise jeopardize the safety of grandma’s heirloom crystal collection are some of the most fun builds you can do. But they have to be done outside, and ideally near a first-aid kit. Which is why, for me, the backyard has always been a place where  large (and occasionally dangerous) projects get their time to shine.

In Backyard Rocketry, we celebrate the courage, skill, and ingenuity that comes with firing projectiles into the air without an advanced degree in aeronautical engineering. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to try out any of the DIY rocketry projects in this book, but we won’t hold it against you if you are. 

Professionals, amateurs, students, and just plain pyromaniacs have all contributed projects to Instructables.com, and we’ve made this collection of the best rocket projects on the site. You’ll find simple projects to get started in your backyard, and we’ve included a few that you might consider trying a few miles outside of town.

We've curated the projects in this book to get you started with beginner rocket projects like stomp-rockets (PAGE?), all the way to more complex projects like a solid fuel staged rockets with an in-fight camera (PAGE?). Whether you’re looking for a low-tech project for a weekend kids birthday party or a big build using all kinds of components, Backyard Rocketry has a project for you.

What are you waiting for? Get making, and transform your quiet yard from a place to relax to a live testing field where rockets can blast off and reach for the sky. No matter what your technical level you're sure to find a fun project here to satiate your rocket appetite, just remember to bring a fire extinguisher in case there's an accident and you need to scrub the launch.

Mike Warren
Editor, Instructables.com

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7 Steps to a Backyard Ice Rink

I grew up with a pond in my backyard. The neighborhood kids would come over when the ice got thick enough and we all would skate for hours playing fun pick-up hockey games or pretending to speed skate. At some point my mom would decide we needed hot chocolate and graham crackers, and we'd reluctantly remove our skates and peel out of our winter gear and sit around my kitchen table with rosy cheeks discussing our great shots on goal and our epic falls on the ice.

Our backyard doesn't have a pond, but the kids and I got into the Stanley Cup playoffs last year. My little girl wants to learn to skate just like Sidney Crosby, and my son has his heart set on developing his goal-tending skills to score a cool customized helmet. There are a few rinks in the area that put down ice in the winter, but as a pond skater I find the crowded ice to be pretty limiting as far as trying new things. We has great success with our rink last year. Now as we wait for the next Stanley Cup winners to appear on CBS to hold the cup aloft, we can't wait for it to be winter so we can skate our backyard!

Our backyard is fairly flat, which makes it a great candidate for a homemade rink. There are several high-priced readymade rinks and rink kits on the market, but we're a DIY-style family. If your yard is challenging consider investing in a kit.

What you need:

PVC pipe for the perimeter

Heavy weight plastic sheeting for the basin

Extra PVC to cap off ends

Weights to weight and secure the tarp

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