How to Build a Raised Garden Bed

Raised Beds are a wonderful way to garden. There’s a little more to it than buying some wood to build a box and filling it with soil for your transplants and seeds; before you even begin the process of building a raised bed, here are some important considerations:

• Orienting your raised bed: You will need a location that gets at least 6 to 8 hours of full sun. Placing it under trees guarantees failure since nearly all vegetables require ample sunshine. Additionally, never place your raised bed on the north side of a house or other building. The best location for a raised bed is on the south side of a house with the raised bed oriented east to west on its long axis.

• Plant for watering: One of the beauties of raised beds is that they warm and dry out much quicker in the spring than an in-ground garden, enabling you to use the bed earlier. Unfortunately this also means that you will need to water the bed almost daily during hot summer days. Do you have a ready source of water close by? Having a convenient water source will make it much more likely that you will be able to water regularly and help your plants thrive.

• Sourcing soil: Using a good quality soil will greatly improve the chances of success, but purchasing “raised bed” soils in the quantities you will need can be expensive. If you choose to purchase topsoil from a local source, check about its source and quality before ordering. Some topsoil providers mix the topsoil with sand to make it go further. Do not use ditch cleanings to fill your bed as they are likely to have high concentrations of road salt and other contaminants.

Here is a great solution that utilizes what you have: use the soil under and around the planned raised bed spot. First mark off the area where you will place the raised bed. If covered with grass, remove the sod from the bed area, and the area 18” beyond the bed by digging about two inches down, peeling the sod off, and placing it off to the side. By preparing the area around the future bed, you will have a greater area to source topsoil, and giving the raised bed a buffer from encroaching grass and weeds. Next, dig down about four inches where the raised bed will sit, place this topsoil into a separate pile. Place the raised bed frame in the hole just dug. Put all the sod grass side down in the hole. Cover the sod with the topsoil pile. If you need additional soil, fill the raised bed to no more than an inch or two inch from the top. Dig additional soil from the sod-cleared area around the outside of the bed and use it to finish filling the bed. Place cardboard or plastic around the exposed dug areas on the outside of the bed, then fill that outside area with wood chips, crushed stone, or concrete pavers, etc. The end product will be a clean, dry, weed-free walkway and work area around your new raised bed. Click here for the full article!