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Raised beds

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Raised Garden Beds - How to Build and Install a Raised Garden Bed. Experienced gardeners use raised beds to sidestep a long list of gardening challenges. These controlled experiments in plant parenthood are so easy, in fact, that they're also well-suited to novices picking up a shovel for the first time. Bad dirt is out, because you fill a raised bed with a customized soil-and-compost blend. Drainage is built into the bed walls, which hold the soil in place to keep erosion in check. Greater exposure to the sun warms the bed, which allows more plant diversity and extends the growing season. Beyond the ease is the control—as you grow your favorite foods, you feed and soak your plants with just what they need for optimum growth.

A raised bed is most productive and attractive as a bottomless frame set into a shallow trench. But by far the most common material for raised beds is lumber. Raised Bed Gardening - How to Build a Raised Bed Garden - BHG.com. A bounty of homegrown vegetables is easier than you think with a DIY raised garden bed to house just the right mix of soils. 13 Creative DIY Solutions for Raised Garden Beds. Raised garden beds organize your planting areas, making them easier to manage and more convenient to maintain. Sidestepping potential issues with soil quality, reducing pest problems and virtually eliminating the need to weed, raised beds are an ideal way to grow herbs, vegetables or ornamental plants. Here are 13 great DIY garden bed ideas and tutorials, many of which reclaim materials like pallets, bed frames and water troughs. Repurposed Dresser Garden Turn an old dresser into a tiered vertical garden! This project could be as simple as placing potted plants inside the drawers, or you could staple landscape fabric to the inside and fill them with soil.

Be sure to use a dresser made of solid wood rather than particle board, if it will be exposed to the elements. Classic Cedar Bed by Sunset Sunset offers plans for a simple cedar raised garden bed that’s about eight feet long and four feet wide, making the middle easy to reach from either side. Beds with Cap Railings by Popular Mechanics. Sites/default/files/DIY-bag-manual-2012_2.pdf. How to Build a Cheap Raised Garden Bed. I’ve been advancing my guerilla gardening efforts recently, with a significant new raised bed now beautifying my nature strip, as seen in the picture at right. I thought in this post I could provide a brief overview of how to build a cheap raised bed, either for use on your nature strip or in your front or back yards. This overview might seem a bit basic for the handy builders among you, so I direct this post to those who are beginning their journey into guerilla gardening and urban agriculture.

I was moved to write this post after attending an environmental festival recently where raised beds like the one I have built were priced between $800 and $1000! Mine cost considerably less than $100, including the soil and plants, and that’ll pay for itself soon enough. I also earned the joy of construction, making me doubly well off. Below I describe the method for building a raised garden bed that is two boards high, which provides good depth.

First thing you need to get is wood. Related.