Here are my current raised beds before I have applied stain to all of them.

Raised bed gardening has numerous advantages over simply tilling up a plot of soil. Here they are:

• Better Drainage


• Soil warms up earlier so you can plant earlier (yes! Be the first in your neighborhood to harvest delicious tomatoes)


• Easier to amend the soil


• Depending on the height of your raised beds, you might not have to bend over so much to tend your garden.


• Grow more per square foot.


• Perfect solution to poor soil.


• You can really create an aesthetically pleasing site with how you lay out your raised beds


• Using my method of recycling lumber to build your raised bed is good for the environment.

Note:
Lengths of the lumber will differ according to your desired dimensions for your raised bed. This list of materials is for a Raised Bed that will measure 3' wide by 6' long.

• 6 - 6' x 6" wide 1" or thicker boards


• 1 - 4" x 4" x 4' post


• 32 - 2" stainless steel wood screws


• 1- Roll of 3' wide 1/4" or 1/2" Hardware Cloth (lengths vary - choose a length to fit the number and size of the raised bed(s) you are building)


• Soil

I don't bother with treated lumber. Read below to find out how I get the lumber to build my raised beds for no cost, but my time.

When I build raised beds, I build them as cheaply (but soundly) as possible. My lumberyard is any place that has some good sized skids/pallets available. Most of the time businesses will let you take a few at no cost as they sometimes just throw them out anyway. Just tear them apart and salvage the lumber you will need for your raised bed.

The local lawn and garden tractor dealership is my lumberyard of choice as they are close and are always getting new inventory in on large skids. The only thing I purchase in order to build a raised bed is the hardware cloth (to keep out moles/voles) and wood screws.

Some folks say that a 4' wide by 8' long raised bed of varying depths is the ideal size. I prefer 3' wide by 6' long raised beds for no reason other than that my small space available for planting dictates that size. If I had a wide open space with plenty of sunshine I would go with the 4' x 8' design.

• Shovel


• Drill with screw gun attachment


• Heavy Duty Stapler


• General purpose cutting snips


• Circular saw (or the good old fashioned manual crosscut saw will do just fine)

Note:
If you are building your raised bed in a tilled garden plot you can disregard this step.

Excavate the site for your raised bed. If possible, choose a nice level spot that has good drainage for the location of your raised bed(s).

I just used some sticks to mark each corner. You don't have to be terribly precise here - it is just a raised bed, we're not exactly building the pyramids here.

Stake out the intended dimensions of your raised bed. If you want to be real particular you can even attach string to your markers for a guide as you remove the sod.

Using a shovel, remove a 3' by 6' (plus an inch each direction) section of sod. Once the sod is removed use a steel tined rake to remove any large rocks and roots. Make sure the excavated area is level.

This is the most time consuming part of the whole process. Some folks just spray some herbicide on the grass and build their raised bed over it. I prefer to increase the drainage by removing the sod.

Note:
The pictures that accompany this building guide show boards that are 12" wide, but I suggest you use 6" wide boards to cut down/eliminate any warping that plagues the wider boards (unless you use thicker lumber such as 2" or better). I used the 6" wide boards for my other new raised beds that I built this spring and they look pretty neat.

You will need to cut 2 of your 6' by 6" lumber in half to give you the 4 - 3' boards you will need to complete your end pieces.

Also, cut your 4" x 4" x 4' into 4 - 1 foot sections. These will go in each corner to hold the raised bed together.

After cutting your 3' sections attach 2 of them to 2 of the 4" x 4" x 12" lumber with 2 of the 2" wood screws in each end of the board.

Example of the 3' sections being attached to the 4"x4"x12" lumber.

Repeat the process for your other end piece.

Attach 2 of the 6' by 6" lumber to each end piece using the 2" wood screws. Make sure that you put the screws into the 4"x4"x12" lumber and not the 1" wide boards on the end pieces.

Align the edges of the boards with the outer edges of the end pieces.

Example of the 6' sections being attached to one of the end pieces.

Repeat the process for the other side of the raised bed.

In order to keep out moles/voles you will want to line the bottom of your raised bed with 1/4" Hardware Cloth (it is not actually cloth - it is a super tough screening material).

Cut your hardware cloth at a length of about 6' 6". Now you see the reason why I buy the 3' wide roll. I don't have to overlap for hardware cloth with a width less than 3' and I don't have to do a lot of trimming for hardware cloth that is more than 3' wide.

The RED line marks the point at which you cut the hardware cloth in order to get around the 4"x4" posts. I just use an old pair of tin snips to make my cuts. You won't need to worry about stapling the 6' sides as long as you pull the hardware cloth tight when you staple it to the other end piece

If you don't mind sharing your garden with moles and other tunneling creatures you can skip this step. However, I don't recommend it.

At this point, your Raised Bed should look similar to this -

Fill the raised bed to within an inch or so of the top edges with some quality soil. You may wish to add some Vermiculite to increase the moisture retention of the soil. I fill my raised bed as follows:

To enrich my soil in my raised beds I add a layer of leaves from last fall to the bottom of the raised bed and give them a good soak with the hose so they settle down a bit.

Then, I add my soil and run a steel-tined rake through it. This helps work the soil down without compacting it.

I soak the soil lightly and let it sit overnight. The next day I add one 40 lb. bag of composted cow manure and work that in with a rake.

Your next step should be planting. Enjoy!

Click here now to learn about your growing zone

1. Park's Whopper CR Improved Hybrid
   
   
   


2. Park's Original 60-cell Bio Dome Seed Starter
   
   
   


3. Refill Sponges for the Original 60-cell Planting Block
   
   
   


4. Tomato Better Boy Hybrid
   
   
   


5. Achillea Cerise Queen
   
   
   


6. Pepper Beauty Bell Hybrid
   
   
   


7. Cucumber Park's Bush Whopper II Hybrid
   
   
   


8. Lemon Grass
   
   
   


9. Basil Large Leaf Italian
   
   
   


10. Refill Sponges for the 40-cell Planting Block (Pkt of 80)
    
    
    

• Lumber - $0


• 1/4" Hardware Cloth (I purchased a 25' roll since I knew I would be building quite a few beds) - 3' wide x 25' long - $18


• Wood Screws - $6 for a good-sized box (a little over 100 per box)


• Soil - Again I get good old farm soil from my folks and the only cost is my time and the price of gas. I do add 1 40 lb. bag of composted cow manure to each raised bed so that adds about $1.20 to the cost of each raised bed.

Now, I can build four 6' long by 3' wide raised beds with one roll of hardware cloth so the price per raised bed is only $4.50 ($18/4 beds). One box of screws will also easily build at least four raised beds so that cost comes out to approximately $1.50 per raised bed ($6/4 beds). About $1.20 for one 40 lb. bag of composted cow manure.

That gives a Grand Total for 1 Raised Bed of $7.20.

At the end of the season after you pull out your plants in the fall sow some winter wheat and in the spring turn it under the soil. This will release nitrogen during the growing season and your plants will love it.

I show you what else you can do with any leftover Hardware Cloth you might have in my Compost lens. The address is below.

Want more information about Compost?

Visit my Compost lens at www.squidoo.com/easycompost/.

Psst. This might be of interest to you, too!
The secret ingredient in making my garden grow is not a "miracle". Find out how to brew up a batch of Compost Tea that your plants will love at my Compost lens.

Note:
I created the images using Google Sketchup. I love this program. I have used different kinds of CAD software in the past and this is by far the easiest to use. I was up and running in no time.

I am trying something new this year to try and improve my yield for potatoes. I heard from my sister about using a garbage can to grow your potatoes in.

I didn't want to sacrifice my garbage can to try this, but I did have a couple of smaller plastic containers that were not being used for anything. I drilled holes (using a 1/2 inch drill bit) about every 3" apart in a circle around the bottom of the container for drainage.

Then, to spruce things up a bit I painted the containers a nice shade of forest green. I didn't paint the entire inside, just the top few inches as the rest of the inside will be covered with potatoes (I hope).

You can use any container as long as it is at least 18 inches deep. Fill the bottom 4-6 inches with the same kind of good soil you put in your raised bed. Place your seed potatoes on the dirt and cover with about 3-4 inches of straw.

It is very important that you monitor the moisture level of the potatoes so that it is not too dry or too wet. If you find that it is too damp all the time try tilting the container over a bit and drill a few more holes.

As the tubers grow out of the seed potatoes you will need to add more straw mulch to keep them covered. Hopefully, come harvest time you will just dump the containers out and find a bunch of delicious home grown potatoes.

I put together a nice little PDF eBook of the plans that appear here. With the PDF you can print out the plans so you can refer to them as you build your raised bed.

Download the Building Plans for a Raised Bed Garden. Right-Click the link and select 'Save As' to download the 11 page eBook.

I went through a few different companies last winter and ordered a variety of seeds as well as root stock items. Park Seed was my favorite out of all of them.

Why is Park Seed my Favorite Seed and Garden Supplier?

• They don't ship your seeds until it is time to start them indoors. This way they remain in their climate controlled storage unit until it is time for you to get them started.


• I ordered some root stock bushes from Park Seed and one other catalog. The Park Seed bushes were the best - hands down. They arrived moist and ready for planting - the bushes from the other place were dried out and not in good shape.


• I ordered a batch of their Whopper Strawberries. 1 week after planting them they still had not showed signs of life so I contacted Park Seed and within a few days I had a whole new set of wonderful strawberry plants that did great.


• They have the best quality of seeds and plant and the best prices around. Believe me, I searched and searched last winter.


• They have been in business for 140 years. You don't stay in business that long without offering a quality line of products.