Make a raised garden bed

As I have said before, my gardens have steadly been going down hill over the years. But this year is going to be different and one of the ways it will be different is that I am using raised garden beds. There are many ways to make a raised bed and I am sure many people have their opinions on the topic, but this is the way I am doing mine. With just a few tools (a drill and a saw) we made these three beds in just a couple hours (and ate dinner!)

But let me back up a minute, because the first thing I did was sit down and plan what I wanted my garden to look like. Once I knew that, I could make up a materials list based on the sizes of my beds. We have a few different sizes and shapes in our garden but today I am am going to give you the basic on how to make a 3 foot by 6 foot garden bed.

I bought 12 foot long boards and cut them in half, just because it was cheaper to buy the lumber that way. I used pressure treated pine lumber for my beds. *gasp* Yes, I know, many people have opinions on the topic of pressure treated wood. 

I did research on the different types of pressure treated woods in the market today and then compared how long treated vs. untreated wood would last, blah, blah, blah and for my money vs. risk and all that stuff we decided to go with pressure treated pine. The wood we bought contain copper and a fungicide but no arsenic. The copper keeps insects at bay, and the fungicide prevents soil fungus from attacking the wood. I know some people fear it but I feel comfortable with the choice we made. I mean honestly, compared to the food people buy in the store, and who knows what’s on (or in) it!?!?! I feel totally comfortable with the extreme remote chance of leaching from the wood I bought.  

So let’s get started. You can either buy the boards in 6 foot lengths or cut down longer boards as we did. I got a super duper circular saw for Mother’s Day last year and it made sizing all the lumber fast and easy. I used 2×6 (2 inch thick and 6 inches tall) lumber but if you want to go taller, by all means, knock your socks off! But remember to adjust the length of your 4 corner posts. My corner post are made from a 4×4 which will make them super strong and they were really easy to drill screws in (like shooting a penny at the broad side of a barn!)

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Once all our wood was cut to size (which we did all of them before we started so we could knock them out assembly line style) we laid out each bed with all its parts. We the used deck screws to put each bed together. We used four screws per corner, two on each side (for a total of 16 per bed.) We were going to pre-drill the holes but it was just faster to put them in, again we were aiming at a LARGE target so it wasn’t like we were going to miss and split a board.

I love how easy these were to make. And I think they look beautiful!! I mean I have no carpentry skills and I pulled it of, so why not give it a try. I promise these will make your yard beautiful, your garden easier to manage and best of all you can take pride in them and say, yup, I made that!