I grew up with a garden. A quite large one, at that. My father, brother, and I spent long hours tilling, planting, weeding, picking, and eating the delicious fruits of our labor. We always had Better Boy tomatoes, yellow squash, cucumbers, cantaloupes, and assorted greens. Sometimes, Dad would plant strawberries in the raised beds along the side of the garden. I always loved it when we planted watermelon. Some of my favorite memories from my childhood revolve around being outside with my dad, whether that was in the garden or working on the old Ford pickup or building a fence for the horses.
Sometime in my teenage years, Dad decided he didn't want to bother with a garden that year. Or the year after that. Or the year after that. You get the idea. This year, however, both me and my Dad have raised beds. I knew I wanted to have a garden of my own, but I was so intimidated by the prep work required. I crashed at his place in April when I was in town for work, and his beautiful raised beds convinced me that it was time to have my own garden. He helped me figure out the right proportions and guided me as I drew out the preliminary plan for my own garden. Tomatoes to the north!
{THE KING IN THE NORTH! THE KING IN THE NORTH!} Yeah I'm a huge Game of Thrones nerd, whatever.
This might end up being a long-ish post, but I'll walk you through the step by step process for building a raised bed!
Materials
3 untreated 12" x 2" x 10' pine boards (one cut in half so it's two 5' long pieces)
22 40 lb. bags top soil
2 40 lb. bags manure/compost mixture
2 4 cu. ft. bags peat moss
1/2 gallon outdoor primer (whatever color you want, I chose gray)
1/2 gallon outdoor paint (same as above)
12 self drilling screws
specialty bit if needed for the screws
cordless drill
plants
How to Build the Raised Bed
- Prime and paint your boards (including ends)
- Lay boards on flat surface (preferably outdoors- it'll be impossible to get outside once you've put it together). Put shorter boards on the inside of the longer boards.
- Once the frame is dry, screw three screws into each corner of frame
- Carry your frame to the location you've scouted for the garden. Make sure it's laying North/South.
- Use a flat shovel to cut around the frame to mark where you need to dig down
- Remove raised bed from its final location-- you should be able to see where you need to dig
- Dig down a few inches or more across the entire footage of the raised bed-- you're trying to get most of the grass out of the area to reduce the likelihood of weeds
- The soil doesn't need to be perfectly level, since you're going to be putting a ton of soil and compost in, which you'll be leveling off anyway. The plant roots don't actually go that far down in the soil, so you don't need to dig down much more than 2" or so
- Replace the frame for the raised bed into its final location. If you need to dig down a little bit to make the rails of the bed level, do that now. I prefer the rails to be pretty level, but that's just personal preference. Remember, you'll make the soil level once you add it in the frame.
- Once you have the frame where you want it, add all of the soil/compost/manure/peat moss. I found it is easiest to level out all of the topsoil, then add the compost mixture evenly over the topsoil, then the peat moss evenly over the compost.
- Mix mix mix! You want to make the soil as even as possible. It makes it a lot easier if you have a buddy help with this. You can use a shovel or rake, whatever you think works best.
- Plant! Seriously, it's finally time to plant. Tomatoes go on the North end, then less tall plants after that, so that at the South end, you're planting the shortest (at their adult size) plants. If you aren't sure how tall your adult plants will be, look on the back of the seed package (or the plant tag). It should tell you on there everything you need to know.
- Don't forget to label what you've planted! You can use the tags that come with the plants, or be super fancy and use chalkboard stakes, store-bought stakes, ets. Popsicle sticks are super easy markers.
I think that's pretty much it! After #13, it's up to you to keep your plants alive! There are a ton of great resources online and at the bookstore to help you maintain healthy and beautiful plants. Have fun!
Leah
