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Simple Inexpensive Raised Garden Beds

ByMelinda DIY, In the Backyard
Garden box filled with blooming pink zinnias, you can sese the edge of the garden box and the clover/grass yard
Our DIY raised garden bed bursting with zinnias

When we moved into our new construction home 6 years ago I knew gardening in our depleted clay soil was not an option for me. I needed and inexpensive garden bed option stat! After a little research I came upon the idea of using fence pickets for affordable raised beds.

THE MATERIALS

  • Fence pickets
  • 1x’s or whatever scrap pieces you have laying around
  • L brackets
  • Screws
  • Drill
  • Saw, hand or electric works here
  • Weed barrier
  • Dirt and compost

THE HOW
I wanted rectangle raised beds so I cut two pickets in half for the shorter ends and left the long pieces intact. I used 1x’s that I had laying around for supports and spaced them out evenly along the length of the two side pieces. So then I used L brackets to connect the pieces at the corners. Make sure your screws don’t go all the way through the back.

Garden box made out of fence pickets, close up of the edge of the box and the 1x that i used to support the sides. Box is filled with dirt and leaves and sticks from last season.
Garden box built out of fence pickets, This shot shows almost the whole garden box, with a speific angle on the supports to show how many I used down each side. The box is filled with dirt and leaves and a piece of wood.
A close up picture of the inside corner of the garden boxes, showing the L brackets I used to build the garden box. Outside the garden box is a yard brown from winter and a arched privacy fence. The garden box is filed with dirt and leaves and sticks from last season.
The support structures for these garden boxes are really simple.


FINISH IT UP
You can staple weed barrier across the bottom of the boxes if you so desire. We did and it didn’t help that much with the weeds, and honestly doesn’t last that long. I think if you dug out my boxes there would be very little weed barrier left. Therefore if your budge is tight I say skip the weed barrier. If you are out in your garden at least every other day it’s not hard to keep weeds at bay manually.

CHOOSE YOUR SOIL AND SEEDS
I use a mixture of raised bed soil, compost, and fall leaves that I go collect from other peoples yards each fall. Yes, I do that. Yes, people think I’m crazy. It’s fine. For seeds, I like to use a combination of the zinnia mix from Dollar Tree and some giant zinnia seeds so I have mixed sizes for really nice full arrangements.

The fruits of our efforts!

Happy Gardening!
Melinda

Other posts you may enjoy
How to keep critters out of your kids sandbox – here
What I buy and repurpose for my kids sandbox play – here

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