Raised Garden Beds

An easy way to create a functional and attractive garden area is with raised beds.

This is our display garden area that, once filled, will be a nice example of what you can do in your own backyard with just a few supplies and a few hours. This garden area will end up providing our family with enough frozen/canned/dried tomatoes, green beans, peas, pumpkin pulp (we LOVE pumpkin anything!) as well as dried herbs for the year, as well as fresh all summer and fall long.

first layer on

We do not use pressure treated wood, nor do we use plastic to line the sides so it's important to pick something that will last. We ended up using Redwood, which is a great hardwood and has passed the test of time over and over.

We only went 2 high of 2" x 6" x 8' boards and make the entire box 4' x 8' in size. A little wide for comfortable reaching, but it's a very efficient use of the wood with no waste. Outdoor wood screws into the corners and we also used a 24" long piece of rebar on the outside middle to help give support once the boxes are filled with all that soil.

Instead of trying to dig out all the grass and weeds, we recycled in honor of Earth Day. We used old newspapers and layered about 3 sheets all over the bottom of each box and then added the soil. 


Speaking of soil, this is probably the most important part. Getting good quality topsoil MIX or a composted manure will feed your plants - and in turn you - is vital to the home garden. I remember my mom using old tractor tires, filling them up with semi composted horse manure and putting the tomato plants right in. They liked the heat and the nutrients and we had great tomatoes.  Thanks mom for all the gardening advice!

boxes done and filled with soil