DIY Raised Garden Beds

One thing I knew I wanted at our new house was a neat little garden area. I wanted raised beds that would easily keep everything contained and be easy for picking and maintaining, keep the dogs and other critters out, and look appealing in the backyard.

Fortunately, our series of UNfortunate events with our house left me with an abundance of supplies to choose from to build my raised garden beds however I wanted them.

I chose to keep my raised garden beds fairly simple this year. Since we aren’t actually moved into our house, I was not 100% sure where I wanted them to go permanently. So I just chose a space where they would work for now, knowing that next year I may tear them down and rebuild something entirely different.

After picking out a place in full sun, I started scavenging through the lumber for everything I needed. I measured everything out and had my husband cut the boards to the exact length I needed them.

For one garden bed, I used: 8-2x4s cut to 28 inches long. 8-2x6s cut to 8 foot 8 inches. 8-2x6s cut to 4 foot 10 inches.

With the 2x4s that were cut 28 inches long, I screwed two together evenly to make a single 4×4 post for the corners of my garden bed. You could easily just buy a 4×4 post but I was being thrifty with what I had.

Once I had the posts for the corners made, I started with the piece of wood that were cut to 8’ 8’’. I screwed 4 onto each corner piece to make the long sides of my garden bed. Then I stood them up, and screwed the 4’ 10’’ pieces on for the short sides. I didn’t use a level or anything fancy. I just eyeballed what was straight and went from there since I didn’t have any intentions of this being super fancy.

Once all 4 sides were screwed on, there was about a 4 inch piece of the corner posts left on each corner which I used to hammer the garden bed into the ground for stability.

And that’s it. Super simple, nothing fancy, but definitely serves it purpose! We lined both beds with cardboard at the bottom, then dead sticks, then a mixture of soil and compost.

Now let’s all hope I can keep some plants alive! 🤪