ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Cheap And Simple Plan For Building A Beautiful Raised Vegetable Or Flower Garden

Updated on January 1, 2013
Source

There are many reasons to use a raised garden bed in the place of a traditional garden design. Lack of space of usable soil are only a percentage of the reasons many people are switching to this style of gardening.Today I will give you the instructions to build a very cheap, yet beautiful and long lasting raised garden of your very own.

A raised garden can be built to practically any size that you want in a couple of hours time if you own or have access to the few tools the job requires. Aside from the convenience of being able to place a raised garden almost anywhere it also has the benefit of better water drainage than a traditional garden. Rabbits and other garden rodents can not access a raised garden nearly as easy as a ground level garden either.

This particular garden built for this article is an 8' by 4' design that tops off at around 11 inches tall. All of the tools were already on site and the only purchases that needed to be made was for the building materials , they came up to less than 50 dollars total. So, if you are ready lets go ahead and build us a garden.

The Tools That We Used And Common Alternatives

  • Miter Saw (a circular or handsaw used in conjunction with a speed square will also work)
  • Cordless Impact Driver (replaceable with a cordless drill preferably at least 14 volts or a corded electric drill)
  • Electric Drill with a 1/2 ” Wood Bit a minimum and at least 12″ long.
  • 8 lb. Sledgehammer (a smaller hammer may be used in its place)
  • Crumb Shovel or Spade Shovel
  • Tape Measure
  • Pencil or Pen

Building Materials


Supplies You Can Buy At Just About Any Lumberyard Or Hardware Store


  • 8′ Landscape Timbers

(as seen in photo) our project required a total of 9 at less than $4.00 a piece.

  • 2′ sections of re-bar or steel stakes

we used 8 of them but more can be used if necessary

  • 3-1/2 ” ceramic coated or galvanized decking screws

    (you will need around 50 of them)


    That should cover the tools and materials needed. When the job was complete we had around $50.00 invested in the entire project.


Source
Source

Building The First Level And Prepping The Ground

Normally, with just about any project that requires prep work, you would want to do the prepping first. In this case though, since our ground surface was already fairly level, we have decided to layout the bottom level first and then put a level on the timbers to decide how much digging or sod scraping is necessary.

When cutting the timbers be sure to have at least one other person there to help hold it while cutting. Whenever I do a project such as this I usually like to do all of my cutting at once, instead of going back and forth from building to cutting. You will find it saves you a lot of time in the long run.

Step one measure 6 of your timbers to make sure they are the same length, if they are not be sure to cut them all to the length of the shortest one. Next set your miter saw to cut at a 45 degree angle. The goal is to cut both ends of the timber into 45 degree corners. In the case of our project we will be cutting 6 of the timbers , to form the 8′ sections of our garden.

Source
Source

With the remaining 3 timbers you will want to repeat the first step in measuring them and making sure they are of equal length. Once that is done cut the 3 timbers in half giving you 6 timbers at around 4′ lengths. Now cut each one of those ends into matching 45 degree corners like you previously did with the others.

Now we will lay our timbers out, checking each timber with the level. After the timbers were laid out we found we needed to remove around 1/2′ of soil and sod from one end, to give us a nice level surface to build on.

Next have your coworker hold the angled ends of the 4′ to 8′ timbers together so you can place 2 screws into each side of the newly formed corners. When its finished it should look like a rectangle with the flat sides of the timbers facing up and down.Go ahead and check the frame with your level again and make any adjustments necessary.

What is your favorite garden vegetable?

See results

setting the second and third level

Your frame is level, all the corners are screwed together, now it’s time to start adding the next levels simply by repeating the steps you have just completed. There is no reason to connect the layers together at this time, that will come later.

OK, now we are ready to install the re-bar into the timbers for stability. Take your electric drill and 1/2′ wood bit and bore 2 holes into each 8′ side around 2′ in from the corners, making sure to go through all 3 three timbers. Then do the same to the 4′ sides only around 1′ from the corners. As you are drilling each hole you will want to place the re-bar into the holes to keep the timbers from sliding.

Source
Source

Once all of the holes are drilled, you can take your sledge hammer and tap the re-bar down until it is flush or just below the surface of the top timber. So there you have it a beautiful 8′ by 4′ raised garden for less than 50 bucks and only a few hours invested, all you need to do now is add the soil, fertilizer and seeds and you will be eating fresh vegetables from your own little garden in no time at all. Good luck and happy gardening.

DS Duby

Source
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)