Raised beds have a few key advantages over standard in-ground gardens: they warm up quickly in the spring, drain beautifully, and allow you to grow deep-rooted plants in gardens that would otherwise be too rocky to accommodate them. But while there are tons of amazing raised bed options on the market, the DIYer in me was more interested in building my own when I finally decided to give raised bed gardening a try.
I’ll walk you through the basics of how to build a simple raised bed garden on the cheap, as well as the mistakes I’ve made along the way so you can avoid them.
Planning my raised bed
Before I started on the actual DIY, I did a fair amount of planning Make sure my raised bed garden was the best It could be. I knew I wanted to grow mostly vegetables, as well as a few herbs, so I researched the recommended depth of beds I needed. For deep-rooted crops like carrots, it looked like I would need at least 12-inches of soil depth, so my raised bed needed to be at least that high.
As I researched, I found a number Garden bed plans They seemed like they would work for my goals, but the plan I settled on was a simple 8-foot long bed that was 4 feet wide and 12 inches deep. My decision on bed length was completely arbitrary, but most resources agreed that a 4-foot-wide bed was easier to reach, weed, and work.
As far as building supplies go, there were clearly a few requirements I needed to create a raised bed garden. I’ll need soil and other materials to fill the bed, as well as outdoor-grade screws and wood boards for the frame. Many sources agreed that cedar is the best wood for building raised beds because it is naturally water-resistant; However, I decided to go along Pine ledger board Because it comes in 8-foot length boards, I needed to make the bed the length I wanted—and it was relatively easy on my budget. At this point, I knew the basics How I Planned to Build My Raised Bed
How I Made My Raised Garden Bed
When I was ready to start DIYing a raised garden bed, I found a perfect spot in the landscape that was mostly level and received full sun during the day. A used a shovel to dig out a few raised areas of soil and then, although this is optional, I plowed the top few inches of earth to release it. My reasoning was that this would remove some of the weeds and grass, but I would also get more soil depth to grow tap root vegetables.
This done, I gathered my supplies: six 8-foot long pine ledger boards, four 1-foot lengths of scrap pieces of 2×4, A handful of external grade screws, and electric drills. I used it Saw the circular Cutting two ledger boards in half to make 4-foot long boards for the ends of my garden beds. Then, I put an 8-foot length and a 4-foot length of ledger board pieces together in an L-shape and screwed them together at the ends to make the corners. I added three more screws to this corner to make it really pretty.
After making the first corner, I repeated this process on three additional corners to make a rectangular bed 8 feet long and 4 feet wide. The ledger board I bought was only 8 inches tall, so I decided to repeat this process to make another ledger board rectangle. I installed the first ledger board rectangle in the location I chose, sunk 2×4 scraps into each corner of the rectangle, stacked the second ledger board rectangle on top of the first, and screwed the rectangles to the 2×4 scrap pieces from the outside to the inside. This created a final raised bed garden frame 8 feet long, 4 feet wide and 16 inches high.
Once I have completed the construction, I need Fill the raised bed. I filled the bottom half of my yard with organic debris: fall leaves, sticks and twigs, pinecones, kitchen scraps, and other natural things that I knew would eventually break down into soil. This ultimately saved me some money because it reduced the amount of clay I needed to purchase. Then I topped the rest of the bed with a potting mix purchased from a local landscaping company and mixed with about 30 percent compost.
results
I built my raised bed garden about 3 years ago and it is holding up very well. The structure remains relatively sound and while not as water-resistant as pine ledger boards. Expensive and recommended cedar boardI haven’t seen any signs of rot or decay yet. The boards, however, started to sag slightly in the center after about a year, so I added some rebar stakes to the sides of my bed last year so they could lean forward.
Although I filled my garden to the brim with soil when I started, the soil line has subsided over time, which is quite normal. To fix this, I have replenished the soil each fall with additional compost and mulch, which keeps the soil naturally rich and all I do over winter. I also added a few extra screws to the corners of the wood frame to make it more secure, and I know I’ll need to replace the ledger board when it rots, but it looks fine for now.
Since making the beds, I have grown all kinds of vegetables and the garden has been productive. In early spring the ground warms, and drains quickly. Having an elevated growing space makes people or is a reason Buy raised garden bedsAnd the sides of my DIY bed are tall enough to make it a little easier to bend over and work in the garden.
What would I do differently?
Despite working on a budget, I felt that building a pine ledger board garden was more than enough for my needs and I wouldn’t trade any of these. Supplies I used to start a raised bed garden. In hindsight, tilling the soil before creating my garden was probably unnecessary, but it would have reduced some of the weed problems.
If I were to rebuild this bed the only major difference would be to add a support to the center of the garden when I built it. I used rebar to fix the tilting sides after the fact, but I think installing a 4-foot length of ledger board in the middle of the garden and screwing it to either side of the frame won’t keep the bed from tilting in the first place.
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