Building a raised garden bed can be a fulfilling activity, costing near nothing. Utilize secondhand wood and it’s basically free.
Benefits of a raised garden bed
Raised beds are a great way to add aesthetic and organization to what could be a messy disarray of crops growing over one another and gardeners tripping over everything. Raised beds are also better for drainage than sticking your crops straight into the ground.
A third benefit of raised beds is their flexibility – they can be built in an hour or less and tailored to fit any desired shape, size or living space.
Here I’ll provide instruction for a simple 2’ by 6’ garden bed that sits one foot tall.
Building your garden bed: what you’ll need
- Six 2” x 6” planks of wood
- 12 cubic feet of garden/potting soil (thats about ten 1.5-cubic-foot bags at your local garden store)
- A soil calculator can be helpful here.
- Seeds
- (optional) Small starter plants instead of seeds
- Screws and a power drill
Planning out your garden bed
As with any gardening project, you’ll want to brainstorm before getting your hands dirty. Does one side have a fence nearby for tomatoes to climb up?
Plan the location
Observe sun, shade and wind patterns
Plan the crops
As with the above, you don’t want to plant shade loving crops in the sun, or vice versa.
Plan the layout
think of what will grow over the sides, what will want to go vertical, etc.
Maintenance
Building the garden is the first step. A healthy garden takes regular maintenance.
Hydration
Be generous with water at first but be mindful of mildew if the garden stays too wet
Nutrition
While your first thought may be fertilizer, your best best might instead be compost. (link to article)
Pruning
Remove dead and dying stems and leaves