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April 13, 2009 · 5 Comments

A Beautiful Easter and a New Raised Bed

How to

What a nice day it was on Easter! The weather was near perfect as we attended Mass, had a nice dinner with the girls, went for a walk in the Carleton Arboretum — and, oh yes, in between those activities, I built a new raised bed for my vegetable garden.  I mention all the other things I did Sunday to emphasize how easy it is to build a raised bed for your garden.

Raised beds are essentially wooden boxes to which you add soil and compost. The advantages of raised beds are many: They look neat, you can control the soil better, you’ll need less water, they produce more per square foot, they tend to heat up a little faster because they are above ground, and it’s a bit easier to set up fencing to keep critters away from your garden. If you are a beginning vegetable gardener and are not sure about the quality of the soil in your yard, raised beds are the way to go.

easy raised bed for garden

A few boards, an hour or so and voila! You’ve made a new raised bed for your garden.

I had purchased the lumber for my bed a week or so ago. Because I wanted a little extra height, I bought three 2-by-10 inch boards, about 10 feet long,  and three 2-by-4 inch boards of the same length. The guys at the lumber yard cut one of each width of board in half, so I ended up with two short boards and two long boards of each type. To build the box, I measured and drilled pilot holes for each point of connection. (Drilling pilot holes is the key to getting things together fast.) Then, using deck screws, I attached the boards to each other. When the basic box was together, I added some 2-by-4s I had around as corner pieces. The whole job took less than two hours. (Truth in advertising: My first raised bed took all day to build — but I did not know about drilling the pilot holes then!)

There are several instructional pages on the web and Patti Moreno has an instruction video on raised beds, which is worth watching. Grab your tools. This is a great project for those weeks before you can plant.

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Comments

  1. Northern Shade says

    April 13, 2009 at 10:50 am

    We had great weather this weekend for some early gardening.
    It sounds like you are very efficient with your raised bed construction. What are you planning on growing in them?

  2. mynortherngarden says

    April 13, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    This bed will be all tomatoes. This year, I will finally have enough space to start doing crop rotation. A couple of my other beds are pretty depleted from growing tomatoes several years in a row.

Trackbacks

  1. Lasagna Garden, Half-Baked « My Northern Garden says:
    May 18, 2009 at 8:58 am

    […] my newest raised bed, I decided to try the lasagna gardening method. In a perfect world, the bed would have been […]

  2. Adding Layers to the Lasagna Garden « My Northern Garden says:
    October 28, 2009 at 2:15 pm

    […] spring, I added a new raised bed to my vegetable area and filled it using the lasagna method. Despite not having a winter to […]

  3. My Northern Garden » Blog Archive » A $10 Greenhouse says:
    May 10, 2010 at 11:27 am

    […] local big box ($ .49 each) and screwed them together with deck screws in the same way I have built raised beds before.  The box serves two purposes: it provides a little extra protection around the plants from […]

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Lola is the only one allowed in the garden beds ar Lola is the only one allowed in the garden beds around here until about, oh, April 15, maybe later. It’s so, so, so tempting to go clomping 🥾around in the garden during these warm March weeks in Minnesota. The ground is thawing but it’s still soft and easily compacted. 

I did do one garden job today, pruning the Chestnut crabapple tree. This is a crab you grow for the fruit, which are like half/sized apples. Fortunately, the snow drifts around my tree are high enough that I could walk in without compressing the ground. 

Enjoy these beautiful days! We know there will be more snow ❄️ and cold ahead. 
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New podcast episode and giveaway! Dill is one of t New podcast episode and giveaway! Dill is one of those plants that brings in all sorts of beneficial insects, creating a productive, healthy vegetable 🍅 garden. On this week’s Grow it, Minnesota podcast, I talked companion planting with local food advocate and gardener Michelle Bruhn from @forksinthedirt. 

We’re both fans of a new book by @jessicawalliser called Plant Partners that looks at the science behind companion planting. A lot of it boils down to creating healthy soil and a welcoming environment for bugs, bees and pollinators. My review of the book is over on the My Northern Garden blog (link in bio) and I’m giving away a copy of the book. To be eligible for the giveaway, just comment below — do you use companion planting methods? What combinations work in your garden? What flowers do you plant near your veg garden? The winner will be chosen March 10 (US and Canada only)
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New issue of Northern Gardener and a cup of tea— New issue of Northern Gardener and a cup of tea—great way to pass a gloomy late afternoon. This issue is full of ideas for spring from @jenniferrensenbrink @monarchgardensbenjaminvogt @gbrownhudson @seedtofork and more. Stunning cover image from @riedelphoto.  Available March 1 on newsstands or subscribe through @mnhort! 
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In winter sowing, you create mini-greenhouses out of milk jugs and other recyclables. Perennial flowers 💐 can be planted in February and March, while annuals, vegetables and herbs can be set out in April. Mother Nature does most of the work. It’s a budget friendly way to grow lots of plants! 

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Oh boy, check out the bucket hat and shades. I was Oh boy, check out the bucket hat and shades. I was digging through some old family photos and came across this one of me circa 1990s, I’d guess, weeding at our first house. I had a lot to learn (like A LOT) about gardening, and little did I know then that I’d be writing about gardening for a living someday. Lots of good thing happen in the garden. 
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