Garden Project: Rustic wood garden bridge

You can create the rustic garden bridge for around $10 if you find the materials on sale at your local home store. When I built this bridge a few years ago the landscape timbers were at The Home Depot for $1 and the dog eared fence pickets were under $1.50 each. Depending upon the time of year and where you live, this project should not cost more than $15 to create.

I do not have step by step pictures

I built this before I discovered the world of posting everything on social media and blogging. I can walk you through the process and you can adjust the measurements to fit your garden. My garden bridge goes over the dry stream bed and connects my backyard garden path and beds with the small grassy area.

The rustic wood garden bridge is roughly 7′ long and 24″ wide. I made it 24″ wide so I could push my wheelbarrow and lawnmower over the bridge. 24″ also was easy and comfortable to walk over too and since the fence pickets are 6′ long I could cut 3 planks per picket. You will need for this project:

2 landscape timbers (cut them approximately 63″ each, need (3) 12″ pieces for braces)
- then cut 45 degrees off each end
5- 6′ dog eared fence pickets or 3- 8′ pickets at The Home Depot
- need 13- 24″ fence pickets for bridge
screws or nails

From this picture I took this morning, you can see there are 4 pieces attached to the landscape timbers to extend and create the step up rise to the bridge. These triangle shapes are 12″ long to hold 2 planks. This was an after thought because cutting the landscape timbers on each end 45 degrees was too steep and did not work for pushing up a wheelbarrow. I had some scraps of 2x6s so I cut them to support (2) 24″ planks to create the riseup to the bridge. (I hope this makes sense)

I simply cut 45 degrees on the ends of 2 timbers and then cut (3) 12″ timbers for the middle bracing and support. I used 4″ screws to connect the foundation for the bridge (because I prefer screws but nails are good too). I then used 2″ screws to attach the planks. Dog ear pickets are 5 1/2″ wide so my bridge dimensions were based on measurements of the planks and timbers.

Thanks for checking out my rustic wood garden bridge

Next spring I hope to be in my new home where I will be creating many more rustic wood garden planters, bridges, and arbors. I love sharing with you home and garden projects. If you ever have any questions, feel free to contact me.