Building the raised bed kitchen garden - pics

14 years ago

I've noticed there has been a good deal of questions regarding raised bed construction lately, so I thought I would share my experience over the last few days.

As background, I have been a square foot gardener for some years now. Last year, a move to a rural property gave me the opportunity to build a 2000 sqft raised bed garden. However, this garden is located about 300' from the house, and I was very much hoping to build a kitchen garden closer to the house for salad items such as lettuce, spinach, peas, a few carrots, and some herbs. The larger (now 3000 square feet) "production" garden will grow the essentials for cooking and storage.

Construction

The bed frame was constructed from some scrap in the barn: 2x12" aged cedar, almost petrified at this point. The boards were cut to make a 4' x 6' bed and screwed together at the ends. Nothing fancy, just nice and sturdy! In the past I have used plain old pine, 1x6's and 1x8's. I love the extra depth of the 12" board, but I would never shell out the money for 12" if it wasn't here already.

Ground preparation

Even though I was filling the bed with 12" of soil, I wanted to make sure the soil under the bed itself was prepared properly. I am a firm believer in giving plants the necessary conditions to grow with as little 'maintenance' as possible. This translates into greater space between plants and deep working the soil. It may look like a square foot garden bed, but it will not resemble one after I'm done planting. I find the added breathing room provided for each plant comes short of the yield of a square foot intensive, but lesser amount of work more then makes up for the slight drop in yield.

After removing the sod, I broad-forked the area. This is similar to tilling without the negative effects of churning the soil. It works the organic matter and fertilizer, aerates the soil, and breaks up compaction quite nicely. I try to broad-fork even the larger 'production' garden, but it takes quite a time to fork a 4'x50' raised bed, let alone 5 or 6 of them. However, for this small space, at minimum you should be using a standard garden fork and working the 8-12" below your bed. Double-digging not required, just work the soil a bit.

As far as ammendments, I am using a Complete Organic Fertilizer as outlined by Steve Solomon. My formulation this year is as follows (based on what I left from the last few years):

3 parts soybean meal

1 part kelp meal

about 3/4 part bone meal

1 part dolomitic lime

I broadcast about 2 cups into the base garden, and fork in. In the upper portion, I use about 4 cups.

After the soil has been worked, a layer of cardboard is placed over top and watered well.

Now comes the fun part...

The Soil

I had a load of...

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Comments (13)

gardenman101
14 years ago
Mike,
Nice pictures and great info. I too have raised beds as well 12 4x10 beds and more coming. I do not do the square foot method yet but will be giving it a go at some point. Keep us posted as to how you project progresses with pics of course :). People seem to think it is hard to do raised beds, and it really is not so with posts like yours I hope more peopl (especially those with clay soil) will give it a try.

Happy Gardening
Mark

PS can someone relink on how to post pictures in your posts as I have forgotten how to. Thanks
lantanascape
14 years ago
Great instructions! That old weathered ceder is so nice and rustic looking. It will be stunning when full of plants.

I want to add that the beds can also be constructed with 4x4" corner posts sunk into the ground 6" or so if one wants a very sturdy, immovable bed. I just used metal corner braces on my last garden, and if I build new wooden beds here at the new place, I'll be using the 4x4's in the corners, and every 4' in the sides of the longer beds to prevent bowing.
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gardenman101
14 years ago
Good advice on the 4x4 post Lantana. My beds arnt to long so i just carraiged bolted them together, going on my 3rd year with them and they look just like when I put them in.

Happy Gardening
Mark
mauirose
14 years ago
Nice post, too bad it can't be stickied or added to FAQs.
husker_champ
14 years ago
that is a very nice bed. but i do have a few ?s why do all that work now in a rural area if you have all that room. and another is since you dug up that area why not just dig a much bigger area and plant right in the ground you can do as you wish these are just ?s
cyrus_gardner
14 years ago
In respose to husker, I also prefer to use the ground as is , but
a framed raised bed has an identity and character. Also, it is
a design element, plus has some functional features: such as
to provide good drainage.
m_lorne
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for all of the responses. I will keep everything updated, but considering the soil temperature is sitting at 35.1 F right now, I can't really see much going in very soon :-)

husker: the larger garden occupies all of my gardening time, as you can see from this photo at the end of last year:

This small kitchen garden is intended for my wife and 4 year old daughter to look after. To that end, it is much easier to use a raised bed for them. Also, given the location close to the house, I wanted something that fit in with the rest of the yard.

Thanks,
Michael
ruthieg__tx
14 years ago
Great Job!
gardenman101
14 years ago
I envy you, I wish I had that much space to garden, not to mention all that corn. You must keep us posted (with pictures of course) on the progression of both gardens.

Happy Gardening
a jealous Mark
;)
idaho_gardener
14 years ago
Good looking soil in the big garden. I'm trying to figure out where that is by looking at the topography and other clues. It's temperate where you live, it's wet enough for moss to grow on the fence, it's not perfectly flat like central Illinois or Indiana. Conifers are growing in the area. No rocks to speak of.

Michigan, western NY, western PA, or northwestern Ohio?
nycynthias
14 years ago
I believe he's in Canada (somewhere!).
star_stuff
14 years ago
m_lorne, I always love looking at pictures of your garden! Thanks so much for sharing your above tutorial!
m_lorne
Original Author
14 years ago
idaho_gardener: that soil is in great condition for two reasons. One, the fenced in area used to be a cattle holding area (i.e. lots of manure). And two, alot of work and care on my part to keep it healthy and fed properly.

Give nycynthias a cigar! Location is in Bradford Ontario, about 50km (that's about 30 miles for you yanks) north of Toronto.