DIY (Do It Yourself) Guide – Building A Raised Garden Bed

Garden Landscaping Ideas – Building a Raised Garden

Raised garden are built for three main reasons. The first reason is much more obvious; it’s a design style that can add character to a garden offering astonishing beauty at times. The second reason could be much more for protecting the garden if you kids that play a lot in the yard or need to define the space so that the plants may grow and not risk being damaged accidentally. The third reason may be to save you from having to deal with a poor quality soil. A raised garden can give you total control on the type of soil, its composition. A raised garden bed has also some other advantages such as better exposure to the sun, keeping away weeds, use of water efficiently, and of course it can be tailored to accommodate different plants.  Building a raised garden can be performed in a number of method and with many different materials. Most frequently used material includes wood, stones and bricks.

Building a wooden raised garden

The style can vary and can also take some fantastic shapes depending on your inspiration and the setting to which the framework is going to be placed. The size of your garden is the initial consideration that must be taken into account. The lumber that you can use may be manufactured or not.  Consider the size, the height and the shape accordingly. Inspiration can be taken from the surrounding and the overall landscape of the area. Building a wooden raised garden is quite a simple DIY work only requiring framing the woods accordingly. When using wood, best use natural rot-resistant wood and avoid wood that has been preserved with toxins. Dig a shallow trench depicting the contour of the garden to set the raised garden. There are some factors that you can take into consideration at this point.  When digging the trench, you may want to completely remove de sod in the area where the wooden raised garden will be and loosen the soil. Place some newspaper, landscape fabric, or cardboard to smoother anything growing there. The wooden raised garden should be bottomless and the woods should be put together using either galvanized or stainless bolts or screws. The height  and size are totally your preference and should be determined according to the type of plants to provide room for the roots and safety.  Once you have prepared the area, placed the newspapers, set you wooden raised garden to place making certain that it is levelled. Fill with top soil best suited for the plants you are growing or compost.

You can make just one big size wooden raised garden or several setting them in a manner to allow for walking space in between and according to your design preferences.

Using bricks to build a raised garden

The idea for building a raised garden remains the same whether it is wood, bricks, or any other material.  Wood is definitely the least expensive of material and easy to work with; bricks, stones may require a little bit more labour to set everything thing in place and can be a bit more expensive but are much more durable structures and in many occasion blend perfectly with the décor as a natural extension of the property.

The design can be simple or of any configuration that you desire. Much depends on the purpose of the garden. For instance,  raised  gardens are best for planting edibles which of course you would prefer a design that will comfortably give you access

to the whole garden. You may also just prefer to set the décor of the property looking for much stylish designs and configurations. To build a brick raised garden, start by marking the area where you would like the garden to be. Dig a trench ten eight cm deep. You may desire to clear the sod from the whole area or just make a trench.  Make a mortar mix – it should be of 5 to one building sand and cement.  Place the mortar mix gradually in the trench along the marked lines at least 5 cm of the mix and place the brick on top. Make sure that the brick is levelled. Have a string run from one end of the straight marked line to the other to be certain that you are placing bricks on a straight line. Place consecutive bricks along the stretch to complete a straight run making certain that they are levelled. When at a curve or angle, make the bricks follow the pattern always levelling accordingly. Remember; bricks are not flexible therefore any round design can only take shape depending on the length of the brick to make the contour of the circumference. As you finish making the bottom layer; start the next layer. The mortar mix is placed in between each bricks and at the bottom. The successive layers should not be perfect match in the sense that the end of one

brick should sit at the centre of the brick on the bottom. As you build, choose the desired height and have everything levelled accordingly. Once you have finished making the raised garden, you can apply a coating. This really depends on the type of bricks that have been used. Some bricks offer an aesthetic appeal and do not require a finish coating others may require that you apply plaster on both sides like butter. Use the mortar mix and smooth it inside and out like butter.

In the inside of your raised garden, place some newspapers or cardboard. This helps to kill anything that might have been growing in the area. Fill your garden with top soil or use compost. Plant accordingly any plants that you desire.

Raised Vegetable Garden Beds

Raised gardens are perfect for edible plants and vegetable gardens. It can said they are a type of oversized container gardening. The material used does not limit to wood and bricks. You can even purchase ready-to-use raised gardens that do not require much work and can be made of plastic and other types of material.  The advantage of having a raised garden is that you do not need to worry much about preparing the soil and is perfect for places where the soil is of poor quality.  Raised gardens often also require less maintenance since the plants are much more secure and weeds or often animals such as rodents can be kept from invading the garden. You can also place the garden in an area where it can obtain the maximum sunlight during the day.

Raised garden are a perfect solution for protecting your garden or when the type of soil that you have is not adequate for the plants that you desire to plant.

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