adminWhen you think of a backyard, what pops into your head? Maybe it’s the perfect place for hosting summer barbecues with friends and family. Or maybe you imagine yourself spending countless hours tending to flowers along your garden. Whatever image comes to mind, one thing is certain – there are few better places in life than being outside!
The “how to build a garden box off the ground” is a step by step guide on how to make a raised garden for your backyard. The article also includes pictures and diagrams of what the finished product should look like.
Are you looking for a quick and simple method to start a tiny garden in your backyard? Vegetables should be ready in two to three months if done correctly. A raised bed garden makes it easy to add nutrients to your soil, manage weeds, and harvest your vegetables from a more comfortable height.
You’ll discover how to construct a raised garden bed in this post, and we’ll lead you through the process step by step so you can have your garden bed up and running fast.
We used 4 – 1′′ X 6′′ 12 foot long Cypress wood for this build. Depending on where you are and what sorts of woods are available in your region, you may use anything from redwood to cypress to cedar for yours. All three of these woods are naturally insect repellent and can withstand the elements better than pine boards.
Pressure treated pine should be avoided at all costs since it may leak into your garden. If none of the aforementioned timber is available, you may use pressure treated wood as a last option, but you’ll need to line the raised bed with a heavy – protective material like this plastic sheathing.
The clearing of the land where the garden will be developed is the first phase in the procedure.
As you can see, we moved a lot of earth and removed all of the weeds and other debris. For anything with medium to deep roots higher than my 12′′ raised bed, you need soften the soil underneath your raised bed depending on the sort of veggies planted. Lima beans, okra, sweet potatoes, and even tomatoes are examples of deep-rooted vegetables (24′′-36′′+).
I have four 12-foot boards that will be cut into four 8-foot sections and four 4-foot sections.
Rough Cut timber is frequently cut long, so if they claim it’s 12 feet, it’s normally a foot or more longer. You’ll need square ends to link the boards together. Because raw timber lacks square end cuts, you’ll need to make a square cut at one of the ends before measuring out your 8 ft and 4 ft cuts.
A speed square is the best technique to create a square cut using a circular saw. Yes, calling something a square when it’s really shaped like a triangle is strange.
Making my initial cut to achieve a square end is seen in the image below. I know I’ll need at least 12 feet of clearance, plus an inch for wiggle space. Make a mark at 12 feet and one inch.
Place your speed square near the board’s bottom edge, slightly touching your mark. Now, using the square as a guide, make a mark all the way across the board. Line up your circular saw blade close to your mark with your circular saw.
Slide your speed all the way to the circular saw’s edge. Run your circular saw against the edge of the square while gripping your speed square close on the bottom of the board. If you press too hard on the speed square with the saw, it will shift and screw up your cut.
Now we’ll mark the eight-foot part, cut it, and then cut the four-foot section. Rep with the other three boards.
We’re now ready to construct the first box.
For added strength, we’re utilizing structural screws rather than normal ones. We used the GRK 5/16′′x4′′, which was overkill, but they won’t fall apart. Plus, I didn’t have to pre-drill or worry about cracking the board with these screws.
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For additional grip and torque, these structural screws include a larger star bit. I put two per side, running the short boards through the larger ones.
As a result, I found it simple to position the boards straight and as perpendicular to one another as possible, with the board ends touching but not overlapping.
To drill the first screw, I began at the top of the boards. Once the first screw is in place, you may now align the bottoms of both boards. Taping with a hammer will shift them where you need them if they’re a bit distorted. You may now screw the other sides in place. Depending on how straight your boards are, I’ll occasionally put all four top screws in place, then turn the bed on its side to work the bottom ends together with additional leverage.
We’ll next double-check that our elevated bed is level on the ground. It is not necessary to level exactly; a close match would suffice. To get all four sides level, you may need to move or remove a little soil here and there.
You may construct the box adjacent to the first one, and then we’ll stack it on top of it.
After that, we’ll add six 22nd posts. The major purpose of the posts is to keep both boxes linked and flat. With both boxes piled on top, our raised beds were approximately 11 inches tall. My posts were chopped to little over 12 inches in length.
I prefer to place my posts about an inch or so below the top, and I want it to be pretty secure in there.
All of these posts will be the same height if your ground is pretty flat. You’ll have to cut your planks various lengths to make your garden bed level if they’re not level, which I’ve experienced on hills.
Make your mark, then cut your posts using the speed square as a guide, just as you did with the boards.
2 1/2 deck screws were used to secure the posts. I drilled into the post from the outside of the boards.
Contents
How Much Soil Should You Add?
Now that we’ve completed the construction, it’s time to add the dirt for planting. You’ll need to figure out how much soil you’ll need first, and there are soil calculators available everywhere.
In fact, we have a link in our description below that will take you to our calculator where you can determine it by entering your length in feet, width in feet, and height in inches.
We required roughly 1.19 cubic yards for our raised bed. That may not seem like a lot, but it’s more than you think since it’s in cubic yards rather than cubic feet. We went to our local lumberyard, which offers garden soil, since we required a huge amount of earth. You can do the same thing by searching for a nearby lumber yard, a local garden shop, or even topsoil on Google.
You can also buy soil from Home Depot or Lowe’s, but it will be more expensive. To produce a cubic yard, you’ll need 27-30 40lb bags of dirt. If you don’t have a vehicle to transport all of those bags, having them delivered in bulk is a better option.
We purchased three bags of black cow dung, three bags of potting soil, and one bag of jungle growth to further enhance our garden soil.
We poured roughly a third of the garden soil, then added 1 bag of manure, potting soil, and a third of the jungle growth to the mix. We repeated this process two more times until the elevated bed was completely filled with soil.
It’s time to bring in some plants.
Now it’s time to start planting. The photo above depicts all of the plants that we will be planting in our garden by the end of March.
We can grow things like zucchini and squash in Florida, and we’re trying potatoes and onions to see whether it’s too late. We also offer tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, and oregano in various types. Shadow-loving plants like Alocasia and Beautyberry, among others, thrive in the shade.
Our drip irrigation tubing is also in the dump wagon. We also got additional jungle grow since it had been six months since we put the raised bed together and then really planted, and we wanted to make sure the soil was good and nutrient rich.
Depending on the plants you have, the instructions on the pot will tell you how large they should grow and how far away they should be from them other. But, for the most part, you’ll use a grid pattern, where you may do one every six inches or one every twelve inches. You can even put two per 12 inch grid with certain plants. So all you have to do now is plan everything out.
As you can see, we’re putting them all together in a system to ensure that they appear good. After then, it’s merely a matter of following the guidelines on the little label.
We’ve also included netting; make sure you wrap it with netting to keep any birds or creatures out.
For example, one of the main reasons we put up the netting was because our adopted backyard chicken has decided she enjoys it.
I’d guess it took about a half day to create the raised bed with all the supplies on hand, then another half day to add the soil to the bed, not including the time it took to go collect the dirt and bring it back. Because we were merely adding the garden piece to a larger section that had already been constructed, planting took another hour or so, and drip watering took another hour. For new backyard gardeners, this is a fantastic weekend project.
So, tell us how your raised bed garden turned out in the comments section below, and what your favorite things to cultivate in your backyard are. Also, if you’re looking for a present for a gardener, check out our top 10 Christmas gifts for gardeners!
For the “waist high raised garden bed plans“, you will need to get a large enough area of soil. The size of your garden should be about 3 feet by 3 feet, or 1 meter by 1 meter. You will also need a shovel and a pickaxe. Dig up the soil in this area, making sure that it is level with the ground. Add water to the dirt as you go, so that it is moist but not wet.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you start a raised vegetable garden for beginners?
A: First, you need to decide on your site. The ideal time of planting is late fall or early spring, when the ground has warmed up enough for seeds to germinate. After that its a matter of digging out a large trench and filling it with composted manure (leftover food scraps), then placing seedlings in the carefully amended soil.
What do I put on the bottom of a raised garden bed?
A: You can put a layer of bark chips or crushed stone in the bottom.
How do you make a raised garden bed from scratch?
A: Youll need to dig a hole deep enough and wide enough for the top of your garden, then surround it with stones. Make sure that everything is level so water can drain easily away from your plants.
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