I love gardening and even though its early in the year, I already have bell peppers and tomatoes growing! There are many ways to build a garden whether it is a raised bed or one in the ground. This post will help you to build a raised bed. I find that a raised bed produces better tasting food for some reason.
When you start your bed, you need to consider what you are planting, how much sunlight it will need and how much space will be needed for the plant to root properly.
The size is irrelevant until building, but we will assume that the bed will be 3 ft x 5 ft.
If you are using 1×6 to build, then you will want your bed to be 2 or 3 boards high depending on how deep you want your bed.
Start by cutting your long pieces first and then your short ones. You will also need 4 corner braces and you will want to use a 2×2, this will be about the size of a porch picket. This will give you somewhere to connect the edges of all the sides.
Next you will assemble your pieces. Start by connecting the corner pieces to the long sides first. You will want to use screws to do this because it will hold better, but you can always use nails if you prefer.
Next you will connect the ends (the shorter pieces) to the corner board just like you did with the side pieces.
After you have finished the side assembly, you can beautify your raised bed by adding a top plate. This will make it look more elegant and offer extra support, but it is optional.
Finally, place your bed where you want it in your yard. I use black plastic as a weed barrier in mine. It helps hold in water and keep out unwanted weed growth. If you add this to your you simply lay it in the bottom and staple it about 2 inches up on all sides all the way around. Make sure to poke a few holes every few inches to insure run-off of excess water.
I obtained these images from Chris Loves Julia because the quality was excellent and this is the original page that I used to build my own! I hope that you enjoyed this article and that it helps you to create the garden of your dreams, or at east get started on it.
Do you know what kind of wood they used (or you!)? Was it cedar? We’re looking to do this as well!
I love this idea. I wish my husband would have done this instead of digging up our yard.
This is neat! would love to make a few of these over at my mothers!
These are Great You 2 did a great job and Thanks for sharing these easy instructions
i really like these raised beds. maybe i need to get stated o some of my own. i love gardening and flowers, so i can’t go wrong with these.
I love the look of the top plate on these beds. I can’t wait for spring, I keep reminding myself that it won’t be winter forever. Posts like this help me rememeber that
I have been wanting to try a garden. Thank you so much for sharing these tips!