From our previous post in 2015
Did you see my post about Our New Homestead?
Then you know that our new place has LOTS of room to GROW!
We've installed 4 new raised beds and had 2 on the property when we arrived.
|
FEBRUARY 12, 2015
|
|
Many of you have seen our updates on facebook. We have expanded our growing area over the last week. This place is HUGE!
We wanted to get growing fast but with the rocky ground at our new homestead, we decided to build raised beds. Here's how we built...
|
Tools:
Drill (required)
Circular saw (optional)
Staple Gun (optional)
Lumber:
We purchased 2"x12"x16' untreated boards, untreated 4"x4" posts, 48" landscaping cloth and 3" deck screws from a local hardware shop.
It takes 1 and a 1/2 boards to make these 4X8 beds. That means 12 boards will make 8 beds.
If you prefer to make smaller beds then you will need to re-adjust length/quantity of boards.
Screws: 32
3 inch "Star Drive" deck screws
*These include a drill bit*
The 2"x12" board were cut in 4' and 8' pieces.
The 4"x4" posts were cut in 11.25" pieces.
If you don't have a circular saw (or want to make the boards easier to handle) I suggest having the people at the shop cut your boards.
The 11.25" pieces of 4x4 post were attached
to the ends of the 2x12x8 pieces with the
3" deck screws. *4 screws per board per corner* 32 screws total
If you have additional questions about getting started or would like more info please feel free to ask. As always, I am happy to help.
After taking the 4' and 8' boards to the garden the 4' and 8' boards were assembled so that the 4' boards covered the ends of the 8' boards with their attached posts.
This gave the assembled bed a 4'x8' OUTSIDE dimension so the landscaping cloth could be attached to one side with staples
If you have gofers, you might consider laying down fine mesh wire (Gofer Wire) below your beds. We used landscaping cloth or "weed blocker" since we laid the beds down on vegetation for the first few.
UPDATE: We realized that gophers were eating our veggies!!! We learned our lesson and had to re-do all of the beds with Gopher Wire.
UPDATE: We realized that gophers were eating our veggies!!! We learned our lesson and had to re-do all of the beds with Gopher Wire.
All of the weed blocker was removed.
We used a staple gun to attach the gopher wire to each bed
The assembled bed was then placed gopher-wire side down and filled with good, organic soil with plenty of Organic Nutrients added to the beds.
For 4 beds @ 4ft X 8ft we used about
5 cubic yards of soil.
Water the bed once it's filled with dirt and organic plant food. We added more dirt once the soil compacted a bit.
5 cubic yards of soil.
Water the bed once it's filled with dirt and organic plant food. We added more dirt once the soil compacted a bit.
TIME TO PLANT HEIRLOOM SEEDS!
 |
| One of our Heirloom Tomato beds (approx 2 months) |
If you'd like to check out some of our gardening tips, check out our fb page.
Or Sign up for our E-Newsletter
1 comment
Thank you for the wonderful directions. I made the mistake of using 2×4 corners on my current beds and am now replacing with 4×4s as needed for beds that were build in 2002. I would suggest adding weed cloth to the sides of the boards as well or some form of moisture barrier that supports organic. The wood seems to last longer when there is less contact with soil.