Raised Bed Gardening

There has always been one kind of a garden or another here at the Cottage. We liked the idea of the ease of care and wanted to work smarter at our gardening and weeding while replacing what we are buying at the grocery store with what we could plant and eat at home. We tossed around different garden designs for awhile before we decided on a raised bed garden design.

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The History of the Victory Garden

These gardens started during World War II. The government approached the public with the plea to begin a garden in their own backyard to help with the war effort. People that were self-reliant were not dependent on the government to care for them jumped on the bandwagon.

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People were urged to take care of themselves and to do their patriotic duty “Victory Gardens” began to spring up all over our nation. Popular magazines of the day like the “Saturday Evening Post” and “Life” printed stories about them. Women’s magazines gave instructions on how to grow and preserve garden produce as a result of this there was a rage in the purchasing of canning equipment across the U.S. Americans purchased 249,000 more pressure canners in the year 1944 than they did the year before.

They were serious about their gardens. The USDA estimated that there were 20 million Victory gardens planted here in America. Now that is a lot of produce! Fruit and Vegetables harvested in these home and community gardens were estimated to be 10 million tons of food. Even if you don’t think that you have the time, you have a less than a green thumb, you CAN do this. Let us help you with great ideas for your own raised bed garden.

Why Use Raised Beds?

This is a GREAT option for people with:
a) very little time.
b) poor soil.
c) less than a green thumb.

We chose to do a series of raised beds in our yard this year. Weeding took up so much time with our normal 2700 square foot garden and we girls were working till we dropped. This year we decided to try this.

Weeding Raised Beds

The weeds were controlled for the most part by the shade cloth that we used for under these boxes and the trellis kept it all up off of the ground. As a result, we have a large garden area that is pretty simple for us to have control of. You could further add a drip watering system to reduce the time you have to care for the garden too (we don’t go into that here). Read on and see how simple these beautiful raised beds are to make to begin your garden and take a step toward food independence (besides, there is nothing like a little dirt to make you feel good).

Our friend Jacqueline over at Deep Roots at Home gave us this great idea and kind of held our hand through it. We are so blessed to have her input. So, every good job begins with a plan.

Raised Bed Garden Layout

Decide on where you want your boxes, how many that you want based on your needs, the size that you need them and what you want to grow. You need to make sure that your plants will get enough sun. Herbs can stand more shade but anything that produces a vegetable will need sunshine. We have several posts on companion planting that will help you to know what to grow and with what:

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How To Build Raised Beds

To make the raised beds check on Craigslist for lumber or your local hardware store. The best wood for raised bed gardens is non-pressure treated wood. Pick something not treated with chemicals if you are going to be using these for food. You really should go no less than 12 inches deep for your boxes to make sure there is enough soil for your root system.

We used:

2x12x8 untreated lumber
decking screws
heavy duty metal staples to hammer into the wood to attach the cattle panels.
Electric Drill
Shade Cloth
Staple Gun
Staples (to attach shade cloth to the bottom of the box)
Cattle Panels

Preparing The Lumber

Cut your lumber to size. We chose 4×8 boxes. Lay the 4′ board at an angle forming an L-shape and then screw the boards together using an electric drill and deck screws at the corners of the box. Do this again for each corner. Place the shade cloth on the top of your box and have a helper hold it in place while you fasten it on all around. Then, flip the box with the shade cloth on the bottom in the spot where you want it to be. This will help to prevent weeds from coming up in the raised beds.

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Get a helper and hold your cattle panels short end up to the long end of your box. Bend it in an arc and place the opposite side against the next raised bed. Using your heavy duty staples and a hammer secure the panel to the side of your box in several places, continue with the next panel. We have two cattle panels on each box. Next, move over to the opposite side of your cattle panel that is up against the next box and staple it securely. Have a helper hold it while you hammer. It may hold ok but getting it to bend and sit right will need a helper for safety. Continue for each box that you will want your climbing vegetables in.

Raised Bed Garden Soil

You want your raised beds to have the best environment possible for your vegetables and fruit. It is possible to fill your raised beds with potting soil from your local garden supply or make your own.

We used:

1/3 of each

Wearing a mask from your hardware store or bandana combine your ingredients and mix well and add it to your raised bed box. Make sure you fill it well. As a result, it will give the roots of your garden plants plenty of room to grow and give you large, healthy plants and lots of delicious food.