This Saturday Michael and I finished building the first of six new raised beds. (Click it for a larger image.) I am so proud of our hard work.

Materials:

• 3 2×10s (one cut in half)
• 10′ of 3/4″ pvc (didn’t need this much but it is what they sell)
• 4 10′ lengths of 1/2″ pvc
• 2 1/2″ decking screws
• 1″ decking screws
• Soil (garden soil, compost and manure)

Simple enough right? Well double digging the ground before placing the bed was a pain (literally!) but will be worth it long term. I could really use a power drill to predrill the holes. I have a dremel but the bit I was able to get was not quite long enough to go all the way through the 2×10s. So I had to drill from both sides… A little too much measuring for me. We chose douglas fir for our 2×8s, which while not as rot resistant cedar is a nice alternative for the budget conscious, especially if you will be using row covers as they protect the beds somewhat from the elements. We didn’t need to saw anything because Home Depot will do simple project cuts for you, so we had one 2×8 chopped in half.

After drilling forever, I screwed together the sides with 2 1/2″ decking screws; two for each corner and Michael moved it out to my double dug area. If you only wanted to do summer gardening this is all you need to do to build a raised bed but we decided that we wanted to design all our beds to have removable hoops for row covers. We want them so that we can extend our growing season and then come summer remove them to set our vegetable cages, trellises, or put up light weight netting. This first bed is the only one that we will be using for winter gardening this year and we will probably be fitting this bed with a 12′x20′ GardenQuilt Coveras we approach the first frost date.

To install the removable hoops we cut the 3/4″ pvc into 10″ lengths and attach them to the sides of the bed. Michael found on neat technique for doing that over on Little House in the Suburbs, so check out their post about it for all the details. Then we just had to bend the 1/2″ pvc to create the hoops and fill the bed with soil. Or rather, Michael filled the bed with soil and leveled it since I was worn out by that point and the bags are more then what I should lift. I loved watching my husband doing that by the way, I’m just saying.

And voilà! One 4′x8′ raised bed. Now only 5 more to go! Still, I just want to take the time to admire this one. We can only do one more in the back yard at the moment though since this year’s beds need to finish first as they are in the way. We could build them in the garage and store them until that happens though. I’m going to get Michael to do a cost breakdown to post so that I can share that all with anyone interested in this project. I know this was much cheaper then building a raised bed kit and much more customizable as well. Eventually we want to surround the beds with brick pavers to making mowing/weeding the paths easier and look nicer too.

For the curious, the image to the right is my winter garden plan for this bed. Click it for a larger image as well. Many thanks to my wonderfully hubby for designing the template for me to do it on the computer. I have started the Forellenschuss Lettuce, Bloomsdale Spinach and Ragged Jack Kale inside on Saturday and made seed tape for the St Valery Carrots, Purple Top White Turnips and Early Scarlet Globe Radishes this morning. I will be sowing them this evening.