Building a planter box

I am in the process of building a planter box in front of our house for my wife. It is about 8 feet long by 2 feet wide. It will have a gravel base for both looks and drainage.

Here are the steps I took today...

First, of course I started with the area where the rose bushes used to be. 

They were more dead than alive, so we ripped them out. This mess is what was left...

Next, came a lot of work with pick and shovel. 

This cleared out the weeds, grass and roots. I went down about 6 inches.

I then put down a base layer of weed stopping fabric and several hundred pounds of red gravel.

I actually need a couple more bags of gravel before it will be to the level I want.

Then I will start construction on the box itself.

This is the view looking toward my front walk and door. 

Not looking too shabby, huh?

As soon as I have the money for the redwood, I will build the planter box itself, and then we will have a nice place to put flowers in front of the house.

-PB