Building Raised Garden Beds

Building raised garden beds

Raised bed gardening can be easy and fun. For example, if your soil is bad or poorly drained, raised bed gardening just might be for you. The raised garden bed or "Gardening in a box" as some call it is easy to build and takes about the same preparation as a regular garden. It will require copious amounts of dirt and compost (I would use organic) to fill your box and you need to buy some wood for the sides. Depending upon how tall you decide to make your raised beds, they may even be high enough to sit on, but we'll get to those specifics later. The best part of all, is that you can plant earlier and grow longer with a raised bed. It warms quicker but dries out quicker so you may want to consider a drip watering system and we'll talk about that later too.

The Layout

You first decide how big you want your garden to be. A Tip? Make whatever you build narrow enough to reach across to the middle, from either side. The length of your box doesn't matter but a good maximum would be 4-6 feet long. Once you've decided the size of your garden, rake the soil smooth and ensure that it is level, then you are ready to build. It's time to measure your garden for the lumber you will need. For simplicity here, I will give you the dimensions of my garden with respect to the amount and type of lumber I used.

My Plot was 4 feet wide and 6 feet long. I used 2" x 6" lumber for the sides, double stacked making my sides 12" high. I used 4" x 4" posts for my corners for support and strength. To round out my lumber and support requirements, I chose 2" x 2" stakes for my side braces for my 2" x 6" sides and ends. Armed with this information I descended upon my local lumber retailer and had them cut the following lumber for me. I chose Douglas Fir: 

( 4 )   2" x 6"ers cut to 6 feet long. (the sides)

( 4 )   2" x 6"ers cut to 4 feet long. (the ends )

( 4 )   4" x 4" posts cut in 2 foot long sections (corners)

( 4 )   2" x 2" stakes cut to 24" long with an angle cut on one end (for side bracing)

( 1 )   coated wood screws 4" long (Phillips head)

Building the sides

 
For this section, you are going to need an electric drill with a Phillips head screwdriver tip, a pair of gloves and safety glasses, a 'T' square and a level. Ready? Take the 4" x 4" corner posts and lay them at their respective corners. 

Next, take your 2" x 6" side lumber and mount it flush with the bottom of your post. use your 'T' square to ensure that it is indeed square. Once you have it screwed into place. repeat with the second 2" x 6." Continue to the opposite end and repeat for your second post. Once complete, turn the entire thing around so that your posts are on the outside and your 2" x 6" are facing inside towards your garden.

The end pieces are even easier to place, as you are going to place then now on the outside edge of your post. In other words, they overlap the side lumber Building this way, gives rigidity to the frame. Once you have used your 'T' square and level to ensure that your end pieces are squared up, screw the two 2" x 6" x 4' L pieces into place. Go to the other end of your end piece and repeat the process. Now, you should be able to stand up three sides of your garden. Finish aligning the remaining 2" x 6" side pieces and you now have a square, raised garden bed 12" high. You have four corner posts that have a remaining foot to them which can be utilized for a variety of reasons, raising the sides higher, hooking support rods into them to make a muslin cover from the sun for tomatoes, whatever. We'll cover that later. For now, we are just building our frame.

Now it's time for the stakes. Measure out to the middle of all four sides and mark that spot. Take each of your stakes and place the angle cut  (the sharpened end)  to the ground and using a small sledge hammer, drive these stakes down until they are even with the top of your sides and ends. One screw to each side board should be sufficient to hold each stake to the side. Just ensure that the screw does not protrude through both pieces of wood and out of the wood. Having fun yet? I hope so. Working with wood  is easier than most people think. In fact, there are many diy projects plans you can do quite easily.  For now, we have to finish this garden.

Next up: Filling our raised bed