Garden beds are a great way to utilize a bit of unused space in your yard. They require a minimal amount of materials and effort to set up and can provide you with fresh herbs and vegetables once you've gotten them setup. 

Materials

All you need to get your Raised Garden Beds built is 4 or 8 long boards. We prefer to use 2" x 8"s with the lengths cut to fit the rectangular shape your space can accommodate. and a couple of support beams in the corners to attach the boards to. For that we use 4" x" 4" posts. A hand-full of wood screws and you're set!

Everything else is just bonus. You can build a rim around the tops of the garden beds, you can leave your posts longer than the height of your gardens and install solar lights... really its up to you. But the basic box is all you need. 

Lining Your Garden Beds

We use landscape plastic to line the inside of our Garden Beds. This is an optional step and honestly the lining tends to last only about a year or two. A simple staple gun and landscape plastic from your local neighborhood garden center are all you need for this optional step. The wood will age, but personally I've always loved the look of aging wood. It gives our gardens character... and not one of ours has broken down to the point of needing replacement yet - and its been years and many many harvests!

Adding the Soil

Local nurseries and garden centers at any home improvement store will have good quality soil to get your gardens going. Purchase enough soil to fill your gardens at least 2/3 of the way. After every season (after your final harvest for the season) you will need 1-2 bags of soil to add to the existing soil. Mix the new soil in with the old established soil and get ready to plan your next growing season. 

Instructions

If you are a bit like me then all you probably need are a few good photos to get your plans laid out. Just jump in and try it! If you don't have tools (other than a screwdriver) you can usually have your home improvement store cut all wood to length for you.

In Conclusion

Raised Garden Beds are just amazing. Ours have provided us with more harvests than we can use ourselves. We have one garden just dedicated to 6 varieties of spicy peppers (my favorite) which we use fresh for salsas and dry for making sauces. We've even fermented them to make delicious Louisiana style hot-sauces.