I cannot tell you how excited I am to share this garden bed DIY with you today! I am incredibly proud of these raised garden beds. A plus? I built them all myself! For a city girl, I'd say that's pretty impressive. In the beginning, I had a little help from my handsome husband. Dylan cut the lumber… mainly because I have a knack for cutting myself with knives in the kitchen, therefore a chop saw was out of the question! After he cut the lumber, it was my turn to begin building the beds. I built each frame, stacked them on top of each other and then secured them with the 2 x 2’s. These beds were finished in less than five hours. It was a fairly simple process, really. If I can do it, anyone can do it. I think that’s why I am so excited to share this experience with you!
I’ll admit, I’m a total dreamer. Often, Dylan and I will walk our property and dream about the changes we want to make or the projects we want to do. When we walked our garden area, I knew I wanted several raised garden beds and naturally I thought “If I say I want these, he’ll build them for me, right?” One might add that you know what they say about assuming? :) Anyway, after some internal deliberation, I realized that although Dylan does enjoy doing projects, if I wanted these done, it was better that I just "buck up" and do the project myself. After all, it was my idea and I was excited about the challenge!
My vision included four raised beds, (3) 2’ x 4’ x 2’ & (1) 3’ x 3’ x 2’.
Materials Used:
(8) 2' x 8' x 12'
(4) 2' x 6' x 12'
(4) 2' x 2' x 12'
You’ll also need: tape measure, hammer or drill, chop saw or skill saw, and you’re preference of 2 1/2” nails or screws.
The main difference in these beds is the height. Before (left) the beds were only about 6" deep and now (right) they are about 22" deep. These beds are much deeper, which will allow for stronger, happier roots and therefore, thriving plants. The reason we chose to build deeper beds is due to the soil on our property. Our soils is very rocky and I often find large chunks of almost clay-like soil, which is not ideal for a vegetable garden. These new and improved raised beds will be ideal for a vegetable garden.
The next step is to get dirt and then plant! I highly recommend getting soil by the yard. It’s significantly cheaper and a lot of smaller businesses offer discounts for military, law enforcement and sometimes, firefighters. Our goal is to get soil and plant/transplant by the end of this month.
I hope you are encouraged to see that a project like this doesn’t have to be super complicated. This project is one for anyone with ambition. It’s amazing to see what one afternoon or work can do for a garden! I love doing projects like this. I love seeing our little homestead come together. I love doing the work ourselves and seeing the fruits of our labor, pun intended!
-The Happy Egg
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