How to Build a Elevated Garden Box 1/4 Inch Hardware Screen

Of course, you don't need a raised bed to grow great-tasting produce—most whatsoever plot of flat ground that gets full sun will suffice for that. But gardening in a raised bed offers a number of advantages. For ane thing, there's less angle over, and then information technology's easier on your dorsum. Build the sides loftier enough and yous can fifty-fifty garden while sitting.

Raised-Bed Gardens

Raised beds also allow you to showtime fresh with enriched, uncontaminated soil-; on sloped property, they offer level, piece of cake-to-tend planting areas. And because these beds warm up faster in the spring than those at ground level, you go a head start on the growing season.

But all those advantages won't help if you fail the soil, and according to sustainable-living practiced Greg Seaman, that's the mistake virtually beginners make. Seaman, who shares his gardening know-how online at Eartheasy.com, has been growing vegetables in raised beds for nearly 40 years. "When the soil is rich in organic matter and nutrients, plants are more robust and well-nigh take care of themselves," he says. "There'southward less weeding, less watering, and fewer pests."

Hither we provide applied advice about the types of frame materials and mulches to use, ways to enhance soil fertility, and the diverse options for irrigating. Plus, we offer strategies for deterring insects (and other invaders). In short, we bear witness you lot all you need to know to get started as a raised-bed gardener.

Shown: To make optimal use of the infinite in these raised beds, use tall teepee trellises to provide sturdy supports for pole beans.

Before You Commencement

HOW MUCH DOES A RAISED BED COST? A simple iv-by-8-foot cedar frame built from scratch or a kit mostly runs just over $100. A 4-by-8-pes brick-sided bed built past a mason volition cost most $2,000. Plan on spending near $3 per cubic foot for bagged garden soil.
DIY OR HIRE A PRO? Wood-framed beds and kits are piece of cake to build, fifty-fifty for a offset DIYer. In most cases, the hardest part is preparing the soil under the bed and filling the frame. You'll probably demand a pro to erect a bed made of mortared masonry.
WHERE TO PUT IT? Cull a spot that gets at least 8 hours of sun a twenty-four hour period, and orient each bed so its long side runs east to west. Keep beds at least half dozen feet from pavement and south-facing walls, which intensify summer estrus.
HOW LONG DO BEDS LAST? That depends on what they're made of. Beds built with western crimson cedar tin can concluding x to 15 years; galvanized steel, xx years; masonry or plastic composites, indefinitely.

Shown: TOH landscape contractor Roger Cook helps a homeowner build a frame out of 2x western red cedar, a naturally rot-resistant wood well suited for this purpose. He advises confronting using preservative-treated boards or creosote-soaked railroad ties, which can leach chemicals that contaminate soil.

Build a Raised Garden Bed from Scratch or a Kit

Both are feasible options, but if you're looking for out-of-the-ordinary materials, kits ease the procedure.

Until adequately recently, most the merely way to become a raised bed was to buy some boards, cutting them to size, and screw them together yourself. Or y'all could hire a mason to build ane for you out of brick or stone. The only limits were your imagination and budget.

But these days, you can find a growing assortment of all-inclusive raised-bed kits with precut parts that save time, eliminate guesswork, and offer a variety of looks. They may not have the one-of-a-kind uniqueness of scratch- or pro-built beds, but they come in a wide array of hitting materials—including wood, steel, composite boards, and tumbled physical blocks—that can add together a handsome accent to any landscape.

Shown: These kit-built beds have porous, rot-proof sides fabricated of wood chips and cement. They're held in place by aluminum corners coated with a tough, baked-on finish and are capped with western ruddy cedar.

From $298; Durable GreenBed

How Big Should a Raised Bed Be?

WIDTH: 4 feet across is considered ideal, so y'all tin comfortably reach the center from either of the long sides.
LENGTH: A bed can be any length, every bit long as the sides are supported every 3 to iv feet to resist the soil's outward pressure level. Either drive 2x stakes next to the sides or attach the ends of wood or metal strapping to opposite sides of the bed.
Meridian: Depression beds are less work to construct and make full, but crave double digging to prep soil beneath the bed. High beds mean less excavation and less stooping, but need more soil and building materials. Eleven inches is a common height: that'south two 2x6s stacked on edge.

How deep to make it?

Tender herbs can grow in 6 or eight inches of soil, but many vegetable roots go much deeper. Brand room for them past edifice a loftier- sided bed or double-digging beneath grade (or both). As you dig, improve the top ten inches of under-bed soil with peat moss or coconut coir. This organic matter helps retain water in sandy soil and improve drainage in clay soils.

ROOT DEPTHS

12–xviii inches: Lettuce, potatoes, radishes, strawberries
18–24 inches: Carrots, peas, beans, cucumbers, peppers
24–36 inches: Tomatoes, rhubarb, asparagus, artichokes

Cull Your Material: Woods

There's more than i manner to build a bed frame.

Readily available and easy to cut, it's the most usually used material for raised-bed frames. For maximum longevity, utilize thick boards cut from rot-resistant species, like this ane½ inch-thick Port Orford cedar.

Shown: 48-by-96-past-11-inch Rectangle kit, $295; Naturalyards

Choose Your Material

Steel

It'southward stiff and strong and usually given a galvanized or painted finish to stave off rust. This bed, made of lightweight corrugated steel, has a colorful powder blanket.

Shown: 34-by-68-past-12-inch Demeter kit, $90; Gardener's Supply

Mortared Masonry

This type of bed will last nearly forever with minimal maintenance, simply requires a concrete footing poured beneath the frost line and someone with bricklaying skills to build information technology. Weep holes every 2 feet or and then in the base of operations course let h2o drain out. Look to pay about $two,000 for a 4-by-8-by-2-foot brick bed similar to this i.

Stacked Stone

Fitted together and held in place with dabs of construction agglutinative, natural stone or await-akin bandage-physical blocks don't demand mortar or a footing, just a tamped crushed-stone base. Line the bed with mural fabric so water can drain without carrying away soil.

Shown: 49-past-49-by-10 ½ inch RumbleStone concrete-block raised-bed kit, $273; Home Depot

PVC

Hollow vinyl planks won't rot or rust, are lighter and more flexible than woods, and assistance insulate the bed from rapid temperature changes, but they do get breakable with historic period. If you lot want another color, you can employ a heat-reflective pigment. These food-form planks are BPA- and phthalate-complimentary.

Shown: 48-by-48-by-eleven-inch Raised Garden kit, $90; Vita

Composite Lumber

Usually a blend of plastic and wood cobweb, these boards are more resilient than vinyl, and concluding longer than wood. Just make sure they're rated for ground contact.

Shown: 48-by-96-by-11-inch Archetype Sienna kit, $200; Frame It All

The Secrets of Peachy Soil

TO START: Mix equal parts compost with peat moss (or kokosnoot coir) and vermiculite (or perlite). Or blend compost 50-fifty with topsoil or bagged garden soil. If you want an organic bed from the start, buy bagged soils and compost that are OMRI-Listed; they've been certified past the Organic Materials Review Institute. Note: Soil that doesn't come across organic standards can be considered organic after iii years if not treated with herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic fertilizers during that time.

IN THE FALL: Pull upwardly and compost any spent institute textile, and comprehend the soil with a thick layer of ground-up leaves (simply run over them with a mower). Hold them in place with netting and then they don't accident away. Or plant seeds for a thick cover crop of alfalfa, buckwheat, white clover, or annual ryegrass. Do this 30 to sixty days before the offset frost so the seeds have time to germinate.

IN THE Jump: About a month earlier planting, chop the leaf textile or cover crop into bits with a spade or hoe and alloy it gently into the soil. Earlier you plant rooted seedlings, fertilize each planting hole with a few trowelfuls of compost, a scoop of composted manure, and ½ cup of rock phosphate or blood meal.

Shown: Fill the bed right to the tiptop with soil; it will soon settle a few inches, leaving a lip to agree in the mulch.

Pattern the Corners of Your Garden Bed

Low Contour

With prefab connectors, yous tin quickly build beds with your choice of wood or composite planks. Just slide them into the connector grooves, and screw into place, as needed.

Rigid powder-coated aluminum brackets from viii to 35 inches tall grade sturdy corners for a range of bed heights. Matching in-line extrusions are available to connect side walls.

Shown: Lifetime Corners, from $25 per pair, screws included; Gardener's Supply

Four Sided

This wood-plastic composite corner has grooves on all sides to join corners and side walls, and even to link upwards with other beds, no screws required. When stacked, they're held together with rebar driven through their centre holes.

Shown: Oldcastle Planter Wall Block, $three.50; Dwelling Depot

Hinged

These ABS plastic brackets pivot 270 degrees, assuasive you lot to build beds in interesting, non-rectangular shapes. To stack them, simply insert the congenital-in stake into the bracket below; slot in boards and secure with screws.

Shown: Stacking Subclass, $15; Frame It All

Why Does Mulch Affair?

The right top layer-—about 3 inches thick—discourages weeds, retains moisture, adds nutrients, and keeps the soil where it belongs.

Employ these to improve the soil:

Straw OR HAY: Straw (harvested grain stalks) stays put, doesn't mat, and insulates the soil. Hay (alfalfa or a grass) breaks down faster, enriching the soil; but avoid the fresh stuff used for beast feed—information technology contains weed seeds. Instead, spread table salt hay (a marsh grass) or old feed hay that has started to disuse; their seeds won't sprout.
FALLEN LEAVES: Some other boon to soil fertility, if you tin find plenty of them in the leap. Grinding them up showtime makes them less likely to mat and helps them break down faster.
GRASS CLIPPINGS: They're high in nitrogen and break down quickly, but apply them just 1 inch thick to forestall matting. In tardily summer, use only stale clippings—they won't stimulate unneeded growth, every bit fresh ones will. But don't use them at all if your lawn is being treated with herbicides or pesticides.
SEAWEED: Rinsed of table salt, this food-rich material contains no weed seeds, acts as a natural fertilizer, and, once dry, stops slugs. Kelp isn't a skilful mulch, only does make a fine fertilizer tea.

Avert these:

WOOD CHIPS: They're slow to degrade and, if mixed into soil, will acidify and starve it of nitrogen. Put them on paths between beds.
SAWDUST: This fine waste matter forms a water-bulletproof mat and, as with wood chips, tin have a negative upshot on soil fertility.

Shown: Straw mulch keeps leaves and produce make clean and dry out.

Keep Beds Hydrated

Sprinklers can waste product half the water they emit. These efficient systems deliver it correct to the roots, where information technology's needed most.

Soaker hose: At about 40 cents per foot, it's the least expensive, least complicated watering option. Merely lay it in the bed, and concur information technology in identify with mural staples. Thread on a pressure level regulator set up to 15 psi for spray-free operation, and connect it to a hose bib with a backflow preventer. Most soakers are fabricated from recycled tires; Water Correct's food-grade, BPA-gratis polyurethane hose is a welcome exception ($55 for 25 feet; Water Correct).
Drip tape: Apartment tubing made of polyethylene—a plastic similar to that in milk jugs—comes in various widths, wall thicknesses, and drip-hole spacing. A 15-mil-thick tape will last longest, nigh 7 ½ years; v⁄viii-inch-wide tapes with holes every 12 inches are suitable for most beds. These tapes merely go in direct runs; a rigid manifold at one end of the bed feeds water to each record.Use a pressure regulator gear up to fifteen psi or less to prevent bursting. $49 for 100-foot kit; Dripdepot
Drip line: The nigh efficient and longest-lasting irrigation option, it'south also the most expensive ($76 for 50-pes kit; Dripdepot). Plastic fittings allow the thick-walled polyethylene tubing to follow any path you lot cull without a manifold, and the tubes can exist fitted with baste emitters to send water precisely where information technology'due south needed. Quarter-inch lines are express to 30-foot runs; ½-inch lines can get up to 200 feet. Both piece of work best at 25 psi.
Irrigation controller: A bombardment-powered timer like the Aquauno Logica ($49; Dripdepot) lets you gear up the timing, frequency, and duration of waterings. An add-on sensor suspends the schedule if information technology rains. More expensive electronic controllers, like the Rachio iii ($230; Rachio), automatically regulate watering based on local forecasts, and enable you to use your smartphone to monitor water use and initiate watering.

Shown: Drip tape irrigates in straight runs.

Damage Command: Tree Roots

How to deal with creeping, crawly, and furry invaders that tin can decimate a garden.

Stop them from sucking up moisture and nutrients by earthworks a ii-foot-deep trench around the bed and lining it with corrugated plastic panels. Overlap console edges by vi inches and seal them with polyurethane adhesive and stainless sheet-metallic screws. Get out the panels' top edge exposed and so roots can't grow over it.

Keep Out Slugs

These garden pests won't touch copper—it gives their slimy bodies a shock. A strip of copper flashing wrapped around the outside of beds can continue slugs out. Crispy seaweed mulch or a sprinkling of java grounds also repel them. Or patrol beds an 60 minutes earlier sunrise or an hour after nighttime to pick them off plants past mitt.

Continue Out Aphids

Add companion plants such equally marigolds, nasturtiums, and petunias to vegetable beds to repel these footling suckers. These plants emit compounds that discourage all kinds of damaging insects—including whiteflies, cabbage loopers, and squash bugs—from munching away in your garden.

Keep Out Rabbits & Woodchucks

Enclose your vegetable garden with a debate at least 3 feet alpine and 3 anxiety from your beds. To cease critters from chewing through or earthworks under it, line it with iv-foot-wide, ½-inch galvanized hardware cloth buried 1 foot deep—even under the gate. Rig the gate to shut automatically, and make sure it has no gaps wider than an inch.

Continue Deer Out

They can't dig nether or chew through a debate, but they tin jump information technology. Plastic netting at to the lowest degree 8 feet high hung around the garden perimeter will proceed deer from bounding over. A slanted 8-wire fence, similar that sold by Gallagher, is just 4 ½ feet loftier just 6 feet deep. Information technology works because deer can bound high or far, but non both.

Extend the Growing Season

To protect tender plants from cold snaps in spring and autumn, place a cloche, or pocket-sized tent, over the bed. Y'all can buy a kit or build your own out of ½-inch PVC pipe, 1x lumber, and UV-treated 6-mil plastic sheeting. Be sure to lift the plastic on sunny days, or provide a vent at the peak on each end so heat can escape. Remove the tent entirely when the danger of frost is by. For step-by-step cloche-building instructions, visit the Oregon State University Extension Service.

Requite Peas (and Beans) a Hazard

A grid-style trellis attached to a raised bed provides the support that peas and beans need as they climb toward the sun. Mount the trellis on the bed's north side, so it doesn't shade the other plants, and go out enough space between the strings or wires—at least 5 inches—and then you can reach in and harvest the ripe pods from the back side.

Raised-Bed Inspiration: Canoe-Shaped

Smart, fashionable ideas for elevating your garden.

Apartment, smooth capstones offer a welcome place to sit when weeding and harvesting in this custom stone bed. Look to pay up of $8,000 for a 12-by-4-by-two-human foot bed in a similar shape in quartzite.

Tip: Before edifice or setting a raised bed in place, make sure—past excavating, if necessary—that it volition be resting on level footing. Otherwise, the soil in the bed will shift to the bed'southward depression stop and may spill out over the elevation.

Raised Garden Bed Inspiration

Ochre Rounds

These curved metal planters are fabricated of weathering steel, an alloy that corrodes only on the surface for a warm rusty finish.

Like to shown: xxx-by-10-inch Custom Corten Round Planter, $800; Scott Avidon Design

Keyhole Bed

The twenty-inch-high walls of this U-shaped, western ruddy cedar kit-built bed put plants within like shooting fish in a barrel reach. An improver fence raises the outside to a deer-discouraging 67 inches tall and doubles as a trellis support.

Shown: 8-by-eight-foot Raised Garden-Bed Kit with Deer Fence, $1,849; Outdoor Living Today

Formal Cease

The solid stain on these custom frames makes a pleasing contrast with the pea-gravel pathways. To minimize upkeep, make the sides out of rot-proof 5⁄4x10 cellular PVC trim, the rails from articulate five⁄4x4 cedar decking, and use 4x4 cedar posts for the corners, topping them with brawl finials cast from polyurethane cream.

Materials cost for a 4-by-12-foot bed similar to shown: nigh $375

Exposed Joinery

Just stick the side-lath tenons through the mortises in the ends; black locust pegs hold the boards together. You tin stack the finished frames as loftier equally y'all similar. Fabricated of white cedar, these boards conditions to a soft grey.

Shown: ii of The Farmstead's 24-past-72-by-viii-inch raised garden bed kits, $100 each; Garden Raised Beds

Built-In Benches

Narrow edges don't make for comfy seating. Hither, wood benches are fastened to the bed's sides, offering a perch for disposed vegetables or taking in the view. Each 2-human foot-long seat can be built from an 8-foot length of 26 western cherry cedar for about $20.