How To Make, Fill & Plant In A Raised Garden Bed

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I have always had the dream of growing a few fresh herbs and vegetables in my own yard. While I love cooking with fresh basil, cilantro, and tomatoes, I hate having to buy the same small package of fresh herbs every time I go to the grocery store, especially if a recipe calls for only 2 basil leaves. To rectify this and take on a new experiment, Charlie and I decided to build a raised garden bed which we could fill and eat from throughout the year. So far, I have absolutely loved watering, tending, and harvesting from the garden and it has been a joy to see how things have started to blossom. Obviously, with it being still its first year of use, I have not yet reaped the full benefits, so I cannot speak to those exactly, however if you are at all interested in starting one yourself, now is the time. In South Carolina, April and May is a wonderful time to plant, however be sure to read up on your area for the planting time specifics of each variety. Having recently taken on this garden adventure, this was our raised bed journey including the methods for construction instructions, filling options and planting layouts, with all the tips and tricks we have learned thus far.

Constructing Your Raised Garden Bed

Establish A Location

The first step to constructing your raised garden bed is deciding on where to place it. For most vegetables, putting it in a sunny location is the best option. To do this, watch your shadows at different times of day and be sure that your spot receives plenty of sunlight throughout each portion of the day. Likewise, be sure to decide if and how you want to integrate it into your yard. You may be making several beds together for an entire garden plot, or like me, you might be adding a singular bed next to your shed. For us, I wanted to incorporate it into our landscaping, so I made sure to leave room to add other bushes and perennial herbs around the raised bed.

Determine Its Size

After deciding on your location, think through how large you want to make it. In height, I wanted ours to be high enough that our neighborhood rabbits could not easily lean over the edge, however, do keep in mind that the higher you make it, the more investment it will be to fill (although see below for tips and tricks in that area!).

Similarly, we decided to be guided by the standard wood sizing to help with the width and length of our box. For the length, we used 8-foot boards that we did not cut or do anything to. For the width, we simply cut those same type of 8-foot boards into two, giving us a roughly 4-foot depth. I have loved this depth for how much our bed can fit, however do be sure to think through circulation and easy of reach. A 4-foot depth is wonderful especially if you have a freestanding bed and can reach both sides. Unfortunately, I did not totally think through this at the beginning and as ours is against our shed, reaching the innermost portions of the bed can be somewhat of a challenge.

Materials

• 6 – 8’ long x 8” high x 1” wide cedar boards
  • Cedar is not only beautiful, but also is naturally weather and bug resistant, so it is ideal for raised beds. You do not want to use pressure treated lumber if you are planting any edibles as the chemicals will be harmful as they leach into the food.
• Exterior Screws
• 1 – 4” x 4” x 8’ cedar post
• Clamps
• Pocket Hole Jig – if desired

Directions

Start with your cedar post. Measure out and cut the post into 4 sections. These will become supports for each of your corners. As our sides were roughly 15” high, we cut our posts slightly smaller at around 14” high.

Next, cut your side boards in half. Being careful to make each the same length, we cut two of our 8’ x 8” x 1” boards each in half, giving us 4 total side pieces.

Following all your cuts, lay out the raised bed in a level location.

If you would like to not see any screws from the front, use a pocket jig to screw from the posts into the back of each board. If you do not mind seeing screws, start with two side panels stacked to form a 4’ wide x 15” high side. Next, place two post sections flush with each of the 15” high sides and flush with the bottom. Clamp and screw these pieces together.

Finally, once you have created your two sides, repeat with the front. Be sure to have the front panels covering the sides entirely.

Screw together, transport to your desired location and viola, you have a raised garden bed!

** We did not add a bottom to help increase air flow and drainage while reducing weight and cost, however if you do, simply screw additional boards across the base **

How To Fill Your Raised Garden Bed

Once you have successfully completed the construction of your bed, it is time to fill. I found that using a lasagna method for filling our bed helped to reduce the costs of filling the bed as it certainly is much more economical than just filling straight with dirt. This method has also been seen to help with your soil quality overtime, so your proactive steps now, should help you in the future. See the diagram below for each layer of the lasagna method.

By starting straight on the ground, we were able to avoid ripping out all of our grass which was a huge time saver. Likewise, placing the bed directly on the ground allows for better drainage and airflow within your garden bed. Similarly, adding sticks, branches, leaves and cardboard/newspaper helps to provide organic matter that will decompose overtime, act as a weed barrier, and add bulk to your bed. I have seen some gardeners add grass clippings to their beds as well, however our yard probably has more weeds than grass (unfortunate but so true!), so I did not want to introduce those weeds into the garden plot to prevent a weeding nightmare down the road. Lastly, regarding the compost, I simply used the Black Kow Organic compost from Home Depot, but if you make your own from vegetable and fruit scraps, you certainly could use that instead.

Once your raised garden bed has been filled, it is good to let it sit for at least a few days to settle and see if you need to add any more gardening topsoil. While we did add some extra after our raised bed settled, we decided not to fill it all the way to the top to provide a little structure for the plants along the outside as they grew.

Planting

While there are many ways to grow plants in a raised bed, I decided to undertake square foot gardening. To help me with this and to be able to see exactly what space I was working with, I created a grid by measuring out each foot along the top, bottom, and sides. Once measured, I hammered in small metal pins (like sewing pins) that I bent into a small hook. Finally, I drew out string, tied a loop on each end and then hooked each side to the pins. This provided an entire grid of string so that I could see each where each “square” would be to plant in.

Following making my grid, I plotted out the vegetables, herbs, and flowers that I wanted to grow. Some started as seeds, some small plants, and some small as bulbs. I choose to do more of a variety of plants instead of bulk items, just so we didn’t get tired of one particular item, however you certainly could change up your plot depending on your preference. The chart below shows how I laid out my raised garden bed with:

For my plot, I was sure to plant each of these plants next to their “companion” so that each item would benefit from its neighbor. I found this list of companion plants from Etsy quite helpful when determining this layout! Likewise, with each square, I tucked the tag of the plant in the corner of the grid so that I would remember which variety was which. You certainly could make your own tags, however I found it was helpful just to place in the tag that came with each plant.

Final Thoughts

So far, I have absolutely loved having our raised garden bed and have already benefited from the lettuce and herbs. While some of my plantings won’t be harvested for some time (onions, carrots, etc), I am very much looking forward to our tomatoes and peppers which have been flowering for the past several days, giving me much hope that I will get fruit in a couple of weeks.

Likewise, having a garden plot to anchor the side of our shed has been so nice. We recently planted rosemary, lavender and eucalyptus around it as well so with a little water and sunshine, hopefully our edible/cutting garden will start to emerge.

Have you been thinking about creating a raised garden plot or have done one in the past? If so, I’d love to know any tips and tricks you have as well in the comment section below!

Happy gardening!

Chloe

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