If you are worried about providing perfect growing conditions for your backyard vegetable garden, you may want to consider building a raised garden bed. However, if you’ve never built one before, you might be wondering how exactly you should go about it.
As a general rule, a raised vegetable garden requires a frame built from wood or other material to lift the plants above the ground. Building a raised garden bed is fairly cheap and can usually be completed in under an hour.
Raised-bed gardening is a great way to design your garden to your liking. While it’s possible to simply purchase a premade garden bed, making your own can save you money and allow you to customize it to fit your space. Read on to learn how to build a raised vegetable garden for your backyard.
What is a Raised Vegetable Garden?
Before you can learn how to make one, you’ll need to know what a raised vegetable garden is.
A raised bed garden can refer to a variety of things. Generally, it is a freestanding box or frame filled with good-quality soil that rests aboveground in a sunny position. The bottom of raised beds is typically open so that plant roots may access soil nutrients below ground level.
It can range in height from a few inches to waist-high, and it can be composed of various materials. Of course, a raised bed doesn’t have to be complicated. You can make one without a structure by simply mounting the dirt 6 to 8 inches high and flattening the top. That way, the only material you really need is soil.
Typically, there is enough space around the edge of each bed for you to walk around it rather than in it, allowing the soil to remain loose and fluffy rather than compacted. This also helps to create permanent garden paths and structure in your garden.
How to Build a Raised Vegetable Garden
Now you can learn the steps it takes to build your raised vegetable garden. Let’s get into it below.
Supplies Needed to Build a Raised Vegetable Garden
The supplies you use will vary depending on the type of bed you choose to create. While wooden garden beds are the most popular, they can also be created using brick, stone, plastic, and soil.
Some of the supplies you can generally expect include:
- Soil
- Fertilizer
- Mulch
- Wood, brick, stone, or other material
- Screws or nails
- Newspaper or cardboard
You may also need tools such as a hammer or mallet, a handsaw if you plan on cutting planks yourself, tape measure, shovel, or drill.
Prepare the Site of Your Raised Garden Bed
There are two ways to prepare the site: digging out the turf or using the “no dig” method. Let’s dive deeper into each of these methods below.
Dig Out the Turf
The first method is to dig out the turf.
Follow these steps:
- Start by stringing a line around the area where you want the bed.
- If there is sod or grass on the ground, cut it very short and dig it out, preserving the clumps.
- Loosen the dirt and turn the clumps of sod in the bed upside down.
- Then lay down newspaper or cardboard and wet it thoroughly.
Now, let’s move on to the no dig method.
No Dig
If you don’t want to mess up your yard, then you should use the no dig method.
Follow these steps:
- Start by cutting the grass or weeds as near to the ground as possible.
- Cover the area with cardboard or newspaper, suffocating the grass and weeds and gradually decomposing into the soil.
- Ensure the cardboard overlaps to prevent weeds from slipping through the crevices.
- Then, on top of the cardboard, spread a thick layer of compost to serve as your growing medium.
Now, let’s move on to actually building your raised vegetable garden.
Build Your Raised Vegetable Garden
Making a raised garden bed takes a bit of DIY skills, but it’s a job that almost anyone can do with a bit of instruction. Remember, a raised vegetable garden can be just about any size or material. However, the steps to create one are somewhat the same regardless of what you use and how big you make it.
Here’s how:
- Let’s say you want to make a 4×4 raised bed made from wood. At your local lumber yard or home improvement store, ask for 4 pieces of lumber that are 4 feet long.
- Place the boards on your prepared patch of ground with their inner corners touching.
- One end of each plank should overlap with the end of the next.
- Using a drill, create pilot holes at the end of each plank and the corresponding edge.
- Screw the planks together with decking screws so that they are secure.
- Next, fill your bed to within a few inches of the top with a nutrient-rich compost mix and topsoil.
And that’s it! Your self-made raised vegetable garden is ready for planting.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you now feel ready to construct your own raised vegetable garden. Growing vegetables on raised garden beds is an excellent option for many gardeners. It not only keeps your garden in order, but also prepares you for less upkeep in the long run.