How to Plant a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

A raised bed vegetable garden is easier to plant than you think. Let’s get you up and running.

First, you’ll need a few supplies:

1. A good soil
2. Rot-resistant lumber like cedar or a wood-plastic composite
3. Galvanized screws
4. Drill
5. Level
6. Saw (optional if you purchase pre-cut pieces of lumber)

Now, step into your yard and find a nice, level spot. Make sure it’ll get lots of sun, preferably at least eight hours of sunlight daily. A good size would be about four feet wide, at least six inches deep, and as long as you can spare the room for. You want to keep the width under control to make sure you can easily access the middle of the bed. For depth, most vegetables grow well in six inches, but if you can space it, go deeper and you can grow vegetables like carrots and parsnips.

After you’ve selected a great spot and have some dimensions in mind, it’s time to get to building that raised bed vegetable garden! Throw down some newspaper or landscape fabric to smother the existing vegetation in the area you’ve picked out. Assemble the frame by cutting your lumber to the correct dimensions and attaching them with a simple butt joint at each corner using a drill and galvanized screws.

You’re almost done. Use the level to make sure your frame is level on all sides, this is important in order to make sure you don’t have any water run-off issues. Finally, fill in the bed with your soil and maybe some left-over coffee grounds.

That’s it, now you can level out the soil and start planting seeds!

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