Elevated Garden Beds

Mike and I have been hard at work building 2 elevated vegetable/flower beds. Easy build a box, fill with soil, plant!

Now that the patio and hot tub are in I want to be able to grow my own veggies. I have read the book Square Foot Gardening, 4th Edition (Amazon Affiliate Link) that was recommended to me by a gardening group I follow. I found it to be so easy to read, understand and implement. 

From there I joined the Seedtime four day "Seed to Harvest" event which reinforced everything I had learned in the book and taught me a few more things. Their website allows you to add the plants you want to grow and then provides sow and harvest dates and how-to guides. This portion is free but you can subscribe to get the layout portion.

I then went down a long, deep, winding rabbit hole and researched all the different native, non invasive trees, shrubs, vegetables, flowers, and herbs that grow in zone 7B. I learned about companion planting as well. I have a beautiful spreadsheet with all the pertinent info I need to be successful in planting. Growing is a different goal!

I used the Old Farmer's Almanac planting guide to figure out my last freeze date so I can count backwards to start seeds indoors and direct sow outdoors.

I gathered seeds from a generous donating gardener and bought the rest. Put seeds in fridge for stratification. Mixed up potting soil. Prepared the seed starting trays. 

Donated by Porter Street Native Plants

30 and 60 day stratification

Bought at Dollar Tree

Bought at Dollar Tree

Bought at Dollar Tree and
The Great Big Greenhouse Garden Center & Plant Nursery in Richmond, VA 

Bought at Dollar Tree and
The Great Big Greenhouse Garden Center & Plant Nursery in Richmond, VA 

Bought at Dollar Tree

Then into the trays some went. I used Jiffy refill pellets and the kit I bought last year. This sits on my kitchen counter under some grow lights. I dream of a greenhouse!!

Some started to sprout after a few days!!! Others will take weeks. Lettuce and Bachelor Buttons.

They are growing stronger now! Week 3. Some days have been really warm so I take them outside for a few hours so they can acclimate to the temps and wind.

Thyme

Lettuce

Onions

Morning Glory

Cosmos

Zinnias

Once they were seeded Mike and I started to work on the elevated garden beds.

We priced out different materials and decided all the best weather resistant and pest tolerant varieties (cedar, cypress, black locust) were too costly so we went with pine. Ideally, what we build will last a decade 🤞. 

This next sections is the how to so feel free to skip it or just scroll for pictures!

Materials used for one bed

🔲8 - 2x4x2 for the legs (free from pallets) (Pressure Treated is more expensive than non) 2x4x10 = $7.28 per board

🔲2 - 2x4x4 for center support (free from pallets)

🔲2 - 2x10x8  cut to 4ft. for the sides (2 in. x 10 in. x 8 ft. #2 Premium Southern Yellow Pine, (Home Depot, $11.37 per board)

🔲2 - 1x3x8 Furring Strip Board cut to 4ft. for underneath trim, over hardware cloth (Home Depot, $2.71 per board)

🔲1 - 3/4x5.5x8  Tight Knot S1S2E Cedar Board for finished look on top (Home Depot, $18.27 per board)

🔲1 roll of 4ft x 50ft Durable Weed Barrier Fabric (Amazon Affiliate, $20.99)

🔲2 rolls Everbilt, 1/2 in. Mesh x 2 ft. x 5 ft. 19-Gauge Galvanized Steel Hardware Cloth (Home Depot, $11.97 per roll)

🔲1 tube DAP 6 oz Wood Filler (Amazon Affiliate, $8.86)

💲Cost excludes taxes = $122.06 per 4 x 4 garden bed

Tools

🔲 Ryobi 18-Volt ONE+ Cordless Compression Drive 3/8 in. Crown Stapler (Amazon Affiliate, $69.97)
Staples (Home Depot, $13.97)
🔲 Dewalt Drill - 20V MAX Cordless Drill and Impact Driver, Power Tool Combo Kit , Includes 2 Batteries, Charger and Bag (Amazon Affiliate, $139)
🔲 Screws #8 x 2 in. Star Drive Bugle Head Deck Elite Wood Deck Screw (540-Pack) (Home Depot, $40.45)
🔲 Screws: #9 x 3 in. Star Drive Bugle Head Deck Elite Decking Screws (350-Pack) (Home Depot, $40.45)
🔲 Washers: Everbilt 5/16 in. x 1-1/2 in. Fender Washers SS (25-Piece) (Home Depot, $12.35)

🔲 Clamps, Irwin 6-Pack, Different lengths (Amazon Affiliate, $43.99)
🔲 Gloves 12 pair of Women's Gardening Gloves (Amazon Affiliate, $12.88). I use these for everything!
🔲 Gloves Men's Firm Grip General Purpose (Home Depot, $14.97)
🔲 Safety Glasses, these fit with or without reading glasses (Amazon Affiliate, $14.00)
🔲 Putty Knife 2" (Amazon Affiliate, $5.21)
🔲 Speed Square & Pencil (Amazon Affiliate, $10.99)

💲No price listed here because you might already have all of this stuff like we did.

Soil Mix 

I followed Mel's Mix Guidelines

1/3 peat moss, 1/3 course vermiculite, 1/3 compost (ideally this should be 3-5 different sources. I could only source two) 

Per 4ft x ft Garden

🔲 1.5 bags of Earthworm Castings 20% of compost portion (Home Depot, 12lb bag, $19.97)

🔲 1 bag Viagro, Vermiculite, Coarse and Chunky (Home Depot, $68 per bag)

🔲 1 bag Premier, 2.2 cu. ft. Sphagnum Peat Moss (Home Depot, $17.47 per bag)

🔲 6 bags Black Kow, Premium 1 Cubic foot Organic Manure 40% of compost portion (Lowe's, $6.48 per bag)

💲Cost excludes taxes = $156.47 per 4 x 4 garden bed

Soil Tools

Wheelbarrow for mixing

5 gallon bucket for measuring

Gloves

Long Sleeves

Shovel

Box Cutter

Optional 

🔲 Swan Soaker Hose 3/8 x 100 ft. w/connectors (Home Depot, $37.78) enough for 3 beds

🔲 6 Inches Galvanized Landscape Staples (50 pcs) to peg the hose in place (Amazon Affiliate, $12.99) more than enough for a bed

🔲 Extra Strength Air Pruner Seed Starting Tray 5 Pack (Amazon Affiliate, $69.99) Prevents root bound

🔲 Plant Labels, (Amazon Affiliate, $4.99)

💲Optional Cost excludes taxes = $125.57

Painting a planter box can be toxic if the wrong products are used 

🔲 Paint

🔲 Stain

🔲 Paint Tools: Roller or Brush, Paint Pan if using roller not needed if using brush

Building Directions

🪛 Predrill holes to prevent splitting by lining up boards and marking them where to drill. 2 holes per board is good.

🪛 Use the 3in. deck screws to attach

🪛 Attach the support 2x4 to the center middle, 3 inch screws.

🏼  Attach the fabric to the bottom with staples

✂ Trim as needed

🏼  Attach the landscape cloth

✂  Trim as needed

🪵 Add the trim board, use 3 inch screws

Here is the finished bottom with the fabric barrier, hardware cloth, and trim completed. We added washers to the inside for added security (not shown).

🎨  Paint the legs. I decided to match the exterior garage accent color after I sanded and filled the nail holes from the pallets.

🎨  Paint or stain the frame

🪛  Predrill the holes for the legs

🪛  Attach the 2x4x4 legs to each other and then to the frame

🌱 Fill with soil. It will take 6 wheelbarrow loads to fill one bed

💧 Water between each layer

🪣 Fill 5 gallon bucket with peat moss and dumped it in the wheelbarrow

🐮 Add one Black Kow manure bag

🪱 Add earth worm castings (portion the 1 1/2 bag out over each wheelbarrow load) 

🥣 Mix these 3 together

🪣 Fill a 5 gallon bucket with Vermiculite and dumped it in the wheelbarrow

🥣 Mix

🥄 Fill the bed

💧Water

Repeat 5 more times

I sealed the pine with a natural weather proofing. Not sure I like the contrast but it will eventually weather to grey. Hopefully the plants spill over and cover as well.

Also used bricks to raise it off the ground to hopefully protect the 2x4s from rotting.

When done add the soaker hose and peg it down. I have yet to add the water source so I left it long so I can change as needed when I plant and connect to hose. One end will receive the hose and the other end will connect to the other elevated bed.

Fill with plants and then lightly mulch.

We are supposed to get snow on Tuesday so still a few weeks to plant. Last few things I still need to do.

🔲 Add the cedar top to protect the pine and 2x4s

🔲 Add the veggies and flowers!! 💜💜

🔲 Add mulch after planting

🔲 Eat well and enjoy! 🥬 🍅 🍆 🫛