Making a Raised Bed

On July 15th I started our broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and bok choy seeds.  They are growing nicely, but it is time to transplant them.  The only problem is that the garden is full right now.  Full of existing vegetables, full of sweet potato vines that need room to expand, and (unfortunately), full of weeds.

I've needed to expand the garden for a while.  Now is the time to build an 8 foot long by 4 foot wide raised bed to plant the 'overflow' stuff that I don't have room for.  It'll be a nice place to plant all the starts of the vegetables mentioned in the first paragraph.  So Russ and I went to the local hardware store/lumberyard and got our supplies:

• 3 2x10s that are 8 feet long,
• Garden soil (after we calculated how many cubic feet would fill the bed)

Then we assembled the tools needed like a drill, circular saw, square, tape measure, and screws and then we got to work.  First we cut one of the 2x10s in half.

Materials in the back of Russ' truck

I laid the boards out in the area where we wanted the bed to be.  Then I drilled some pilot holes, 3 of them to be exact, on the ends.  This helps when screwing the boards together and keeps you from splitting the boards.

Pre-drilling the holes where the screws will go.

Let's zoom out so you can get a big picture view of what we're trying to do:

Beginnings of the raised bed

Line up your boards and put the screws into the holes that you've drilled and screw them in.  The boards should come together real snug.

Screwing the screws in the sides of the raised bed

Now we have the frame all together.  I have a milk crate filled with newspapers and other junk mail that I save for starting fires in the bbq chimney starter and bonfires, but I have too much saved.  You can see that I've emptied the milk crate and lined the entire bottom of the raised bed frame with a thick layer of newspaper.  This will serve as a barrier to discourage weed/grass growth from the bottom.

You can also see, if you look closely, that I've stapled pieces of an old shower curtain that I cut up to the wood.  I lined all the sides of the 2x10s with the shower curtain.  The 2x10s are treated lumber.  I tried to get them untreated, but they didn't have untreated 2x10s.  I'm not sure what the wood is treated with, but I read that sometimes they are treated with arsenic.  I don't want arsenic leaching into the soil that our vegetables are growing in.  That's where the old shower curtain comes in handy and will serve as a barrier between the wood and the soil.

Now we're ready for some soil

We began by putting down 10 bags of topsoil.  It is pretty sandy and should help to drain the raised bed quickly.

Russ is adding bags of topsoil

Next Russ adds 15 bags of garden soil mixed with compost and peat moss.  This will serve as a good medium to grow anything.  He uses a garden rake to smooth it all out and prepare the seedbed.

The sower went out to sow...

Then we got the flats of vegetable seedlings that we planted back on July 15th and we started transplanting them into our new raised bed.  Here are some bok choy seedlings:

Bok Choy Seedlings

Russ and I started on opposite ends and dug small holes with plastic forks and transplanted the seedlings.  It was quick work and that was a good thing as it was hotter than a Wal Mart parking lot out there.

Once we got it all planted we stepped back to observe our work.  The green seedlings against the black soil is a pretty sight to behold!

The Raised Bed is completely built and planted!

Now, if we can keep them watered and keep the bugs and pests off of them, we should have some delicious veggies to eat in 2 1/2 - 3 months.  I'll also plant some in the garden as well a little later so we'll have a staggered harvest.