When we moved to our last house we wanted to make a patio. This meant digging down into the existing lawn. To get down to ground level.

As a result, we had a lot of great top soil we had to remove. This gave us the opportunity to make a raised bed garden. That’s right a bunch of raised beds from scratch. All in all, I recall we ended up building around 15 raised beds.

The thing is we’d never made any raised beds before. So we were starting from scratch. However, with some common sense, we ended up with a bunch of raised beds that were the envy of our neighbours. In fact, we had neighbours copying our design. That’s how impressed they were.

Anyway here’s how you can make your own raised beds – even if you’ve never made one before.

The design and shape of your beds are crucial.

So you need to ask yourself some questions;

How big a raised bed do you want?

What shape do I want?

What space are you putting it in?

Can I reach over the raised bed from both sides without standing on the soil? (You want to avoid compacting your soil. Compacted soil is bad, as you want your soil to be airy.)

Firstly we went to our local agriculture store. That’s because they have an extensive wood yard. Chances are, there’s probably a wood yard near you.

We bought 47mm thick x 200mm wide treated timbers. They were 4.6m long.

We also bought 4.8m of 47mm x 47mm. They are to make anchors to hold the raised beds in place.

Your timbers need to be treated – that’s when the timbers are treated with a wood preservative.

Transporting timber back to your home can be a pain if you’re using a roof rack. As the timbers need to be securely tied down.

If you already know what lengths of timber you want, you can cut your timbers to length with your own saw. Don’t forget to take a pencil and tape measure to the wood yard.

If you haven’t cut them at the wood yard then when you are home, measure your timber lengths…to your chosen length…mark with a pencil and set square… and cut. Use a chop saw…circular saw…or a handsaw. Whichever you prefer.

Next, cut the 47mm x 47mm into 365mm lengths. Screw one end of these lengths to the end of your timbers. Use 70mm – 80mm length screws. Use an impact driver as it makes the screwing far easier. Borrow one if you don’t have one.

You can also use hammer and nails if you prefer. We prefer the screws as it makes the task far easier. And if you need to change the screw for some reason it’s easier than trying to extract a nail that’s been firmly hammered in.

You should end up with a “leg” of around 180mm protruding. The protruding bit goes into the ground and acts like an anchor.

Each corner needs one of these legs.

Now consider this…

What width do you want your raised beds?

2 feet wide…?

3 feet wide…?

Or what width do you want?

If you’re not sure what is the best width for your raised bed…do this exercise; stand up… Bend over and see how far you can stretch. What is a comfortable stretching distance for you?

You do not want to be over-stretching when tending your vegetables in a raised bed.

Ours were a mixture from 2, to 3, to 4 feet, personally I would prefer 2.5 feet.

Whatever width you decide you want, cut 2 timbers of the same length. Now screw one of these to the legs, on either end of the timber lengths. What you end up with is a rectangle. And at the moment this rectangle is suspended above ground. That’s because it’s resting on 4 legs.

Now decide the final destination for your raised bed. Once you’ve decided this, dig a small hole around each leg. And put the legs into each hole, you can also use a heavy lump hammer to hit them into the ground, so this secures the raised bed to the ground.

Congratulations you’ve just made your first raised bed.

 

Some people add cardboard on the bottom layer to stop weeds coming through, this we decompose so is a good idea if the area is very grassy or has lots of weeds. You now need to fill it with soil. But before you do… what other soil conditioners can you put in your empty raised bed?

Compost? Lawn cuttings? Seaweed? Chopped comfrey? Chopped stinging nettles? Anything that will decompose and add rich nutrients to your soil.

Wheelbarrow top soil into your raised bed. And fill it to 1” from the top of the timber. This means you’ll have 5” of soil for your vegetable plants to grow in.

Next the enjoyable part… planting out your new raised bed.

Remember you can plant your plants far closer together when you use raised beds.

Also you can keep specific beds for specific crops. One of the first things we did was make a raised bed for asparagus. We planted 20 asparagus plants in it. You can do the same.

We love our raised beds. They’re so productive. There’s very little weeding that needs doing. And they just keep on producing vegetables.

We turned a barren piece of lawn into a kitchen garden. And you can do the same if you wish.

One thing. Once you built your bed and planted it out it’s time to celebrate with a cold beer or glass of wine. You’ve earned it.