Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Project #1: How to Build a Raised Bed

Sorry about the lack of step by step pictures (um, or any pictures for that matter) - I really did intend to take some pics of the process, but oh well. Here's what I did:

The beds are made of cedar boards, which are more expensive but they are fantastic material to use for vegetable beds (as far as wood goes) because cedar is naturally bug and rot resistant, so they will last much longer than, say, untreated pine. I figured out what size boards I needed (per my plan) and had Lowes cut them all for me. I didn't do anything special, or use reinforcements on the corners (we'll see if that matters or not, I guess!). All I did was take some self-drilling deck screws (which were great to use and saved me lots of time not having to drill pilot holes first!) and did two on each corner. If the raised beds were any higher than the 6 inches they are, it probably would have been wise to reinforce the corners but I just needed them to stay together, so I think 2 screws on each corner will do the job. It took a few hours to assemble everything and lay out the beds where I wanted them.

There are many other much better resources on the internet (that have pictures). Here are a few:

Cedar Raised Bed for About $10

Building a Raised Bed

These are great examples if you want a higher bed (about a foot tall). I needed a shorter one for my plan however, so I just screwed boards together and put them in the ground.

Stay tuned for Project #2: Removal of Sod and Double Digging the Beds!

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