Weekend Project: Build a Raised Bed Garden

Preparing The Space

Preparing the space can help your raised bed garden be a little bit less weed-prone. It’s a good idea to lay down some kind of weed barrier. You’ve got a few options:

• Store-bought weed tarp. The hardware store by me carries one that’s recycled, which is what we used for the raised bed space.
• Lasagne style. Got some cardboard boxes and old newspaper laying around? Layer them in the are where the raised bed will go, and they’ll act as a weed barrier.
• Nothing. You don’t have to do a thing. You might get some weeds popping through, but not nearly as many as if you’d planted directly in the ground.

The other thing you want to do is rake over the area to even it up a bit. This is also optional. We did a not-so-great job of leveling the ground for our raised bed garden and compensated by cramming bricks and rocks under parts of the box to make it level.

Assembling Your Raised Bed Garden

Before we did all of this math and hit the store, I looked at a bunch of raised bed plans. They ranged from simple to complex, and we ended up re-planning while we were at the hardware store, thanks to a very helpful fellow in the lumber department. Here’s how we built our bed (you need a buddy for this part):

You want to work on a flat surface, like a deck or a very level part of your lawn. Lay one of the L boards so it’s sitting up, just like it will be in the finished bed. Your buddy’s first job is to hold the boards flush while you drill and screw in the wood screws.  Grab a W board, and place it perpendicular to board L, then drive two screws through L into W. It will look like this:

Repeat this on the other end of board L using the other board W, then attach the second L board on the other side.

Your buddy’s second job is to help you pick up your completed bed and set it in place. Just pick it up, carry it over, and set it down!

Now, you’re ready to fill that bed up with soil and plant!

One other optional thing: we worked some bat guano into the soil, to make it a bit more nutritious for the baby seedlings. For seeds that we sowed directly into the bed (rather than sprouting in advance), I also covered those with seed starting mix to give them a boost.

That’s it!

Are any of you guys working on your own raised bed garden? I’d love to hear how you built yours and how it’s going in the comments!

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