Corner braces on raised beds, why does everyone skip them

I rebuilt my raised beds last month after the old ones bowed out about 3 inches on the long sides, and every how-to video I watched just had boards screwed straight to the posts. Two seasons of wet soil and hot sun will push those walls out no matter how thick the lumber is. Are people just planning to rebuild every few years, or is there a trick I'm missing to keep a 4x8 bed square for longer than a summer?

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morgan_ramirez2mo ago

Wait, hold up. You're telling me nobody in those videos even mentioned putting a single corner brace on? That's wild. I remember watching a bunch of those build videos too and they just slap the boards together like it's a birdhouse, not something holding a ton of wet dirt. Three inches of bowing is huge, that's like a whole plank worth of pressure just pushing out. Honestly, I think half these folks are just filming the build and not coming back a year later to show the mess. Good on you for catching it before your whole bed turned into a potato shape.

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