Happy summer! If you're out of school, I hope you are enjoying your break. If not, hang in there:) Since we sold our boat and thus won't be lake rats all summer, we have no excuse not to grow some vegetables. We've been in our current house for three summers now and still hadn't bit the bullet on building some raised beds. In our old house, we had raised beds for about eight years and loved them. It's the perfect way for a lazy gal (and guy) to garden. No tilling, not a huge commitment, take up less space, and look neater than a random patch of dirt.
It's a simple process and takes less than an hour. Not gonna lie, there is a bit of an upfront cost year one... especially if you use cedar boards and I HIGHLY recommend that you do. Do not use pressure treated lumber because you don't want those nasty chemicals in your garden soil. But after the first year, you're only out the cost of your veggie plants. We spent approximately $120 at Lowe's on everything we used below to build one 8x4 foot bed. That size bed is perfect for a family of four.
The boards we purchased came in 8 foot lengths, so we had to cut one in half to make the short sides. Measure twice, cut once! The board was actually 8 feet and a 1/4 inch, so just be careful when you cut. Our boards were planed on one side so there was a smooth and a rough side. We built the box so that the smooth sides were on the outside and the rough inside.
Then, attach the corner pieces to the short boards. We found these little metal pieces on an end cap in the lumber section. They are used when framing up a house and there are tons of options. We just looked around and found some that fit our purpose. The screws we used say they are designed for "metal" but those were the only ones we could find that were short enough! The wood is fairly thin and I didn't want screws sticking out. Ugly AND dangerous! Yikes. Ain't nobody got time for tetanus shots.
Once we attached the corner pieces to the short boards, we attached those at a right angle to the longer boards. I wanted the seams to be on the short sides so that the bed looks smooth from the front. It literally took us about five minutes to build this box. So simple.
It's a simple process and takes less than an hour. Not gonna lie, there is a bit of an upfront cost year one... especially if you use cedar boards and I HIGHLY recommend that you do. Do not use pressure treated lumber because you don't want those nasty chemicals in your garden soil. But after the first year, you're only out the cost of your veggie plants. We spent approximately $120 at Lowe's on everything we used below to build one 8x4 foot bed. That size bed is perfect for a family of four.
The boards we purchased came in 8 foot lengths, so we had to cut one in half to make the short sides. Measure twice, cut once! The board was actually 8 feet and a 1/4 inch, so just be careful when you cut. Our boards were planed on one side so there was a smooth and a rough side. We built the box so that the smooth sides were on the outside and the rough inside.
Once we attached the corner pieces to the short boards, we attached those at a right angle to the longer boards. I wanted the seams to be on the short sides so that the bed looks smooth from the front. It literally took us about five minutes to build this box. So simple.
Next comes the fun part! We moved the frame in place and then covered the ground in a layer of newspaper. The newspaper will decompose, killing the grass that will act as compost in your soil. Bonus! Filling a box this size (which isn't huge, to be honest) takes a lot of soil! More than you'd think. I used an online garden soil calculator and it told me we'd need 22 cubic feet to fill this 8x4x8in deep bed. Not entirely true. It took about 18 feet, according to the soil we purchased. 18 cubic feet of high quality garden soil would cost a fortune, so we did the bottom half in inexpensive top soil and half in organic garden soil.
It helped that I had some help with labor:) Those bags of soil are heavy! And I had to take pics, ya know. Couldn't get my hands too dirty.... I spread the newspaper, Shane poured the soil, I raked it smooth. Then we were ready to plant! We spaced out our plants and dug little holes in the soft soil. Much easier than working in traditional garden soil. Unless it's been tilled to death, it's not as easy to work with. These little beds are super simple to plant in and maintain. They do tend to dry out more quickly than the surrounding ground, so you'll want to water frequently. But it sure beats maintaining a large garden!
We ended up building two because, well, we like to go overboard with things. And we like variety. How do you choose just one or two different tomato types?! Not possible. We're like kids in a candy store when we shop for vegetable plants:) So we ended up with SEVEN different tomato plants! LOL. That's entirely too many and we'll never eat all that they produce, but I can sack em up and pawn em off on my sister and friends. It's part of my job as a woman in the South. Just call me Ouiser.
We planted an Early Girl, a beefsteak, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, yellow tomato, orange tomato and a Roma tomato... green, yellow, orange, habanero and sweet banana peppers, a row of green onions, straight neck yellow squash, Black Beauty zucchini, and two Straight 8 cucumbers. I can't wait for everything to grow and produce some delicious, homegrown veggies. Nothing like a garden tomato in the summer:)
Do y'all garden? Do you prefer raised beds or a traditional garden patch? If you need some tomatoes, give me a call....
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