Make DIY Raised Beds for Planting

For many gardeners, raised beds offer an appealing way to grow vegetables, herbs, flowers, and other plants. Building your own DIY raised bed can be a satisfying do-it-yourself project that allows you to create a customized garden space. With some basic carpentry skills and gardening know-how, you can construct an elevated planting bed adapted to your site and needs.

Raised beds provide versatility in location and design. You can install them right over your native soil or practically any flat surface. Customize the height, shape, and size based on available space and what's easiest for you to use and access. When properly built and filled, DIY raised beds promote excellent drainage and prevent soil compaction. They enable control over the planting mix while keeping weeds to a minimum. By working in waist-high beds, gardeners can tend plants without stooping, kneeling, or stepping onto the soil.

Benefits of Raised Garden Beds

Elevating your garden offers many practical advantages:

• Better drainage - With raised bed gardening, excess water drains away more readily from the loose, premium soil mix used to fill the frame.
• Warmer soils - The soil in raised beds warms up earlier in spring for an earlier start to the growing season.
• Fewer weeds - Weed seeds blown into garden beds can't take root easily in the loose, well-aerated soil mix.
• Easier access - Working in raised beds is less taxing on your back thanks to reduced bending and kneeling.
• Space efficiency - Raised beds allow intensive gardening and higher yields in a small yard.
• Control over materials - You can fill your raised bed with quality topsoil, compost, manure and other amendments to enrich plant growth.

With elevated beds that bring the garden to waist height, gardening duties become simpler. By improving drainage and using a lightweight planting medium, the beds prevent soil compaction from foot traffic and make planting, weeding, and harvesting easier on your body. The soil warms up earlier in the raised beds, allowing for an extended growing period. You gain flexibility in placing your raised beds near the house for convenience.

Planning Your DIY Raised Garden Bed Project

A well-designed raised bed contributes to growing success. First, determine the optimal amount of sunlight for what you want to grow. Most edibles need at least six hours of direct sun daily. Arrange your bed shape and orientation to receive sufficient light.

Provide for irrigation and good drainage. Incorporate watering access when designing DIY raised bed plans. Position beds near rain barrels or add drip irrigation with a timer. Include drainage pipes or channels if heavy rains might flood beds and waterlog roots. Amend native soil underneath with gravel, sand or wood chips to bolster drainage.

Map out the layout. Sketch plans to scale showing available space and where you hope to place plants. Optimal raised bed size ranges from 3-4 feet wide and 8-12 feet long for easy access from both sides without overly stretching. Create corner posts to define each bed or border the growing area with attractive edging lumber, bricks or stones.

Materials for Building DIY Raised Beds

Use rot-resistant, non-toxic woods for raised beds, such as:

• Cedar
• Redwood
• Cypress
• Locust
• Chestnut

These woods resist decay naturally with anti-fungal properties. Their dimensional stability means they swell less from moisture. Cedar and redwood cost more but will last over a decade when properly constructed.

Check Community Listserv groups or Craigslist for free or inexpensive recycled wood boards to utilize, including:

• Shipping pallets
• Old fencing boards
• Scrap lumber

Avoid using pressure-treated lumber, which contains toxic chemicals. Railroad ties and telephone poles get preserved with creosote and pentachlorophenol and are unsafe near edibles.

For a permanent raised bed with block construction, use:

• Landscape timbers
• Brick
• Cement Block
• Natural Stone

Landscape timbers composed of hardwoods resist rotting for several years. Bricks, cement blocks, and stone last indefinitely for permanent raised garden beds.

How to Build DIY Raised Beds

Constructing your own raised bed involves straightforward steps. Always start by calling 811 to get underground utility lines marked so you can safely dig. Next:

1. Outline the dimensions with string and sticks. Standard sizes are 3' x 6' up to 4' x 12'.
2. Excavate grass inside perimeter to improve drainage. Dig down 4-12 inches removing roots and debris.
3. Level ground surface using a rake. Spread gravel, sand or wood chips to aid drainage under the frame.
4. Assemble planks by screwing corner posts and boards together. Use two posts up to 8 inches wide on inside corners for strength.
5. Move frame into excavated area. Square it up and level all sides with a spirit level.
6. Stake sides into place or anchor framing boards with long landscape spikes.
7. Line inside of bed frame to separate soil from wood (optional). Use durable plastic, permeable weed barrier or burlap.
8. Shovel planting mix into the frame. Fill to about 2 inches from top. Mix should be loose, fertile and fast-draining.

Use galvanized or stainless screws to prevent corrosion. Drill pilot holes to avoid splitting wood when screwing boards together. Wider boards may require cross-bracing underneath or wooden stakes on inside corners for reinforcement.

Preparing the Planting Bed

Raised beds get loaded with fresh planting mix instead of compacted native soil. Blend your own fertile medium by mixing:

• 1 part compost
• 1 part peat moss or coco coir
• 1 part vermiculite
• Plus balanced organic fertilizer (optional)

This lightweight, nutrient-rich blend retains moisture while allowing excess water to drain freely. The porous mix resists compaction and keeps plant roots healthy with ample oxygen circulation.

Before filling, line inside walls with durable plastic sheeting, permeable weed barrier or burlap to prevent soil contact with preserved lumber. Overlap seams during installation.

Load raised beds with planting mix to within 2 inches of the top edge. This allows space for mulch later. Gently tamp down the medium without overly compacting it. Allow beds to settle for a couple weeks, then top off with more mix as needed.

Fertilizing the Planting Mix

While compost and peat provide nutrients, most blends need fertilizer to sustain plant growth. Choose organic fertilizers to slowly release nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium such as:

• Alfalfa Meal
• Fish Emulsion
• Worm Castings
• Kelp Meal
• Bone Meal
• Rock Phosphate

Pre-mix amendments into empty frames before shoveling soil. Reapply fertilizer two or three times each growing season according to product instructions. Test soil pH yearly and add garden lime or sulfur to maintain ideal acidity near neutral.