Thursday, February 12, 2015

Build Your Own Raised Bed Garden

Did you see my post about Our New Homestead?
Then you know that our new place has LOTS of room to GROW!
We've installed 4 new raised beds and had 2 on the property when we arrived.

We plan on starting with 8 raised beds at 4 feet by 8 feet and 12 inches high.  We're off to a great start after only 12 days!



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FEBRUARY 12, 2015
Many of you have seen our updates on facebook.  We have expanded our growing area over the last week.  This place is HUGE!
We wanted to get growing fast but with the rocky ground at our new homestead, we decided to build raised beds.  Here's how we built...

Building a Raised Bed Garden

Tools:
Drill (required)
Circular saw (optional)  
Staple Gun (optional) 

Lumber:
We purchased 2"x12"x16' untreated boards, untreated 4"x4" posts, 48" landscaping cloth and 3" deck screws from a local hardware shop.

It takes 1 and a 1/2 boards to make these 4X8 beds.  That means 12 boards will make 8 beds.

If you prefer to make smaller beds then you will need to re-adjust length/quantity of boards. 

Screws: 32 
3 inch "Star Drive" deck screws
*These include a drill bit* 

The 2"x12" board were cut in 4' and 8' pieces.   
The 4"x4" posts were cut in 11.25" pieces.

If you don't have a circular saw (or want to make the boards easier to handle) I suggest having the people at the shop cut your boards. 

The 11.25" pieces of 4x4 post were attached  
to the ends of the 2x12x8 pieces with the  
3" deck screws. *4 screws per board per corner* 32 screws total 
3 Sides up and ready for the 4th
After taking the 4' and 8' boards to the garden the 4' and 8' boards were assembled so that the 4' boards covered the ends of the 8' boards with their attached posts.   

This gave the assembled bed a 4'x8' OUTSIDE dimension so the landscaping cloth could be attached to one side with staples.
Raised Bed with weed blocker on the bottom
If you have gofers, you might consider laying down fine mesh wire below your beds.  We used landscaping cloth or "weed blocker" since we laid the beds down on vegetation. 

The assembled bed was then placed cloth down and filled with good, organic soil with plenty of Organic Nutrients added to the beds.  
 
For 4 beds @ 4ft X 8ft we used about
5 cubic yards of soil.
Water the bed once it's filled with dirt and organic plant food.  We added more
dirt once the soil compacted a bit.
TIME TO PLANT HEIRLOOM SEEDS!


...NEW SEEDS...  


If you have additional questions please feel free to ask.  We usually reply to emails within a few hours. 
Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Planting,


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marys-Heirloom-Seeds/229833070442449

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5 comments:

Anna said...

We love our raised beds! http://losingmypuppy.blogspot.com/2014/05/garden-intro.html This time of year I can't wait for spring to come and to get planting our garden.

Enthusiastic Bookworm said...

we rent a house, but I think we can do this, I so want to try. I did some pots, but it didn't really work for the tomatoes and lettuce. Stopping by from Let's Get Real Party
http://dinoheromommy.com/

Sandy Sandmeyer said...

I'm so glad that you joined us for this week's Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party! I've pinned your post to the BBPP Pinterest Board. See you next week!

Unknown said...

Great instructions on how to make your own raised garden beds! I did ours 3ft square, using the square foot method, but wish I had done the more traditional long beds. Thanks for sharing with Snickerdoodle Sunday!

Bert Aguilar said...

What fantastic raised beds that you have as well as an exciting ongoing gardening project! We recently redeveloped our garden in order to grow our own produce. To help us do so we hired a local corrugated iron company who specialise in making water containers that collect rain water. The perfect way to water your garden. Well worth the money.

Bert Aguilar @ Rainfill Tanks and Curved Roofing Supplies