How To Build A Cedar Raised Garden Bed – If you have a green thumb, a weekend at home away from your garden might not seem so comfortable. Planting a garden in your cottage can be difficult, as you will likely struggle with thin, acidic soil and lots of shade.
That’s why we love this real cedar raised garden bed for the cottage. With raised beds (also called garden boxes) you can level a small amount of soil in your cottage – a third of a meter is ideal. Be sure to use locally sourced soil to avoid introducing non-native seeds.
How To Build A Cedar Raised Garden Bed
A raised bed also prevents “road weeds” from spreading into the soil and protects against pests such as snails and slugs. That said, unless you put up chicken wire, your yard will still be a buffet for other cottage critters.
How To Build Raised Garden Beds
To make a good idea even better, try using real cedar for your garden bed. By choosing cedar, you’ll build a box that not only has a warm, rich glow, but is also resistant to weather, rot, and pests. Using natural wood products like Real Cedar also removes carbon from the atmosphere and reduces the effects of climate change.
To find a good source, go to realcedar.com to search for a retailer near you and ask if they have short lengths in stock. With shorter lengths you will have to cut less, which means less waste and more savings for you. Also request kiln-dried material if available.
Visit realcedar.com for the full project plan, and while you’re there, check out Colin and Justin’s new web series, The House That Cedar Fix, for more inspiration.
Next story 24 things you can do at home this long weekend… what you can do at the cottage. If you’re looking for how to build a cedar raised garden bed, this tutorial is the place to look. Raised beds are a great way to start a garden.
Raised Garden Bed Installation In Houston Texas — Rooted Garden
Hello friends! Today I have a very special guest post from… my husband!! When it comes to decorating and making fun little DIY crafts around the house, I’m your girl. If it requires power tools and precise measurements, I’m definitely NOT your girl.
My amazing husband loves making things almost as much as I do. I always have lofty goals and crazy project ideas that he rolls his eyes at. When I came up with the idea of making a raised bed, she got really excited, or moderately excited, or maybe she just tolerated the idea.
Probably because she had to do all the work and figure out all the logistics while I sat and watched. My project ?
I’ll let her show you how to build a cedar raised bed from here! I’ll add my two cents, of course (my comments will be in purple)
Make Your Own Raised Garden Bed In 4 Easy Steps!
Hi everyone! I feel like I’ve been given homework for the first time in 8 years, but I’m really excited to write this post.
The reason is that this is one of the few projects I have ever undertaken in my LIFE that went as expected and took 10% of the expected time.
It was truly amazing. As you can see from the image, the results were also quite surprising – obviously I’m a bit biased.
Before I show you how to build a cedar raised bed, let’s start with some checklists.
How To Build A Cedar Raised Garden Bed
The first thing you want to do is prepare your workspace. It will be easier to get things done efficiently if everything is ready and there is plenty of space to work. Once this is done, get ready to cut the boards. (Let’s be honest, I NEVER prepare my workspace. I just get started. That’s probably why my craft supplies are everywhere. Note.)
You will need to measure and cut four 4-foot pieces of cedar and four 2-foot pieces of cedar. If you have eight-foot boards, it’s fairly easy to cut two of them in half and the third into 2′ pieces.
Once the cedar is cut, you can go ahead and cut the 4″ x 4″ into four 12″ pieces. These will be the supports on the inside corners of the cedar box you will build. The dog in the background is optional but highly recommended.
The tree has been cut down and now it’s harvest time. The goal here is to get a 2′ x 4′ box that is 16 inches tall. You can start from the long side or the short side, it doesn’t really matter, but you have to decide if you want the boards from the long side to overlap the short side or vice versa.
Premium Cedar Elevated Garden Bed 24in X 48in X 19in Rcev244819p| Greenes Fence
I chose to have the boards overlap the long side over the short side, then added two 4″ x 4″ pieces to one of the 2′ cedar pieces lined up underneath and on the side of the board as explained below. image below.
I joined the 4″ x 4″ by first drilling pilot holes in the cedar to prevent the cedar from splitting. I wasn’t too worried about pre-drilling the 4″ x 4″, but it wouldn’t be too bad, especially if the 4″ x 4″ was a little dry.
As you can see below, I prefer to use the triangle pattern to fix things like this.
I start with another screw at least an inch below the board and left of center on the 4″ x 4″, a few inches above center on the 4″ x 4″, and then about a third of an inch from the top to the left of center.
Easy Diy Raised Garden Bed
Personally, I think it provides a little more stability. It’s overkill for this particular project, but I’m all for overkill.
Repeat this process four times to attach the four 4″ x 4″ pieces to the two short cedar pieces. Next, you can add the longer pieces of cedar to the two side pieces to create your box.
Once you’ve finished the first box, you can begin gluing the secondary cedar boards to bring the planter to full height. I did this by drilling pilot holes and using two screws to attach the cedar board to the 4″ x 4″s coming up from the first cedar step.
After the second tier of cedar was glued to the 4″x4″ pieces, I drilled holes through the faces of the top of the cedar pieces into the back pieces so that the top of the box was held together.
How To Build Raised Garden Beds From Cedar Boards
Unfortunately, I was a little too excited with how things turned out and forgot to stop to take a photo of this step.
Now that the box is ready, you can place it wherever you want. We chose a small section of our planting bed in a corner with enough room for our 2′ x 4′ box.
We made sure the spot was (mostly) level and dug in a bit to keep the dirt in the box from seeping out the bottom. It was probably too much again, but better safe than sorry or something.
In the photo above you can see that I used cedar chips to hold the two layers of cedar together. I didn’t want any bulging to occur that would distort the shape of the box.
Diy Raised Garden Beds With Cedar Fence Planks & A Bench
After adding the scrap pieces, I used a stapler to glue some weed blocks to the inside of the planter to prevent dirt from running through the two cedars, as you can see below. I wasn’t entirely sure.
OK! You now have a 16-inch high raised bed that has been placed on a flat area and topped with a weed block to hold dirt. Are you ready to get dirty!
In the image below, we used a theoretical planting mix that we purchased from a local garden store. You can definitely use any planting mix you like.
I want to point out that the store expert never uses potting soil in a raised bed as it holds too much water and will suffocate your plants/vegetables.
Tall Raised Garden Beds Plans + Diy
We used 8 cubic feet of soil, so there was about 4 inches from the top of the soil to the top of the planter. You can use a little more, but I wouldn’t use less.
I hope this post was helpful and I promise I’ll take more photos next time! Hopefully, you are confident in how to build a cedar raised garden. If you’re looking for something above ground, check out our rooftop herb garden.
I was very happy with how it turned out. I’m not exaggerating when I say it took TJ 2 hours to complete. And it’s PERFECT. We don’t have much space to grow vegetables.
But having this mini garden was very important to me