Building Raised Beds

One of my newer raised bed boxes
in progress. I used 8-foot two-by-eights
cut to the desired length, with
two-by-twos at each corner. The
two-by-eights are attached to the
 two-by twos with 3-inch wood screws.

Over the past few years, it has become increasingly important for to me to grow as much of my own food as possible such as fresh fruits, veggies and eggs, which are all possible on my slightly less than half-acre property. So occasionally I end up adding more raised beds so that I can grow enough for my husband and I to eat fresh produce throughout the summer and fall, and still have enough to preserve for winter meals.

A couple of years ago, I replaced the existing in-ground garden with six raised beds that each measured six feet by four feet. This arrangement allowed me to grow enough veggies for use by my husband, and me, plus some extra to share with friends and co-workers. The raised bed concept has proven to be very manageable with regards to weeding, watering and harvesting.

Last year, I more than doubled my raised bed square footage by adding eight more beds, each measuring eight feet by four feet. The older beds are about one foot deep - perfect for many of the perennial food crops I am growing such as blueberries, artichokes, rhubarb, asparagus, blackberries, and raspberries. The new beds are a bit shallower at eight inches deep, which is still deeper than the six-inch depth recommended by the book "New Square Foot Gardening."

My original raised beds, which
are now home to my perennial fruits
and veggies -- blueberries, rhubarb,
artichokes, blackberries, raspberries
and asparagus.

It is usually recommended to use wood such as cedar or redwood because they are more resistant to rot than standard construction-grade wood, but I decided to go the less expensive route and use construction-grade wood, and, so far, they are holding up quite nicely. I also chose not to use any anti-rot wood treatments because I don't like to use chemicals if I can help it. I may have to replace some of the boards every few years.

When building the raised beds, I left the corner pieces on the outside edges six feet long, while cutting them to eight-inch lengths for the inside edges. With the longer posts to the outside, I was able to easily attach some black plastic fencing material to keep the chickens out of the area. These can just as easily be cut to the eight-inch lengths if you don’t have a need for attaching fencing to the beds.

If you have a problem with tunneling pests such as gophers or moles, attaching some hardware cloth or chicken wire to the bottom can help prevent the pests from damaging your plants from underneath. Ground squirrels can be a tougher problem in that nothing short of a complete cage can protect your plants. I am fortunate to not have issues with any of these creatures. I have never had any issues with moles and gophers, and the neighborhood feral cats took care of the ground squirrels.

A couple years ago I created a soil mix for growing veggies that worked very well, but mixing the quantity I needed (144 cubic feet) was very time consuming. This time around I went with purchasing premixed soil since I needed around 180 cubic feet to fill the new beds. I was going to order it in bulk, but ended up buying it in bags that were on sale, which ended up saving me a lot of time by not having to shovel a giant pile of soil off my driveway and transporting it to the back yard via wheel barrow. My access to the back yard is too narrow for a big dump truck, but can handle a forklift just fine.

My newest raised beds showing
the longer posts to hold up some
chicken-proof fencing, and the straw
pathways between beds.

I placed each of the boxes so that there was plenty of room to walk between them and allow a little extra space for vining plants such as watermelon and butternut squash. To help keep weeds down along the pathways, I placed a thick layer of straw, which also helps to keep the pathways from becoming a muddy mess. Wood shavings, mulch, or other products also work well, but I already had some straw bales, so I saved a little cash (especially important with my current state of unemployment).

I started planting these beds this past weekend with cool-season crops (more on that in an upcoming post).