Raised Bed Garden

I decided to try to go organic with a raised bed. I built mine 2 ft. by 12 ft. to go along the edge of a patio.

Construction, after a bit of design brainstorming, was fairly straightforward, and I was filling it up with soil in about an hour and a half.

I used 6'x5.5"x5/8" cedar fenceboards. Corners are pressure treated 12" long 2x4s screwed perpendicularly to 12" long 2x6s. Bottoms of 2x6s have 3/8" holes drilled 5" deep into which a 12" length of 3/8" re-bar is inserted. These will serve to stake the box to the ground. Due to the 12 ft. length, center supports made of 12" long 2x6s, again with the re-bar, tie the 6 ft. sections together in the middle.

There was some very minor bowing at the middle, so I added a board across the tops of the center supports to pull it back in line. 1-1/4" galvanized screws attach ends of cedar boards to insides of corners and center connectors, 1" down from tops of corner pieces so another layer can be stacked on top later if desired. 6 mil plastic sheeting lines the inside walls, but not the bottom-- two layers of heavy cardboard are laid out in the bottom to shut out the grass. (Update: Despite the plastic sheeting liner and cardboard underlayment, grass eventually began to grow up in between the plastic and the boards. This will require some re-thinking.)

The local organic nursery delivered a yard and a half of organic garden mix in a super sack. Really nice stuff, and with the surplus, I had enough to beef up the beds in front of the house and fill another 6x6 foot raised bed. Plus, I have a compost pile going and a worm bin that puts out some really good stuff for fertilizer.