Follow this easy tutorial on how to build raised garden beds! This DIY is cheap and will last for years! The tutorial will give you some great ideas on the best designs and layout.
The Benefits Of Raised Garden Beds
Raised garden beds are a great way to create an organized garden space, especially when you have limited space for planting a garden. Building raised garden beds yourself will save you money, and this DIY tutorial will show you exactly how.
The raised garden beds also provide easy drainage, and help keep pests out. We’ve built rectangular 4FT x 8FT raised garden beds, and square 4FT x 4FT beds, and they both work GREAT! This tutorial will show you how to build raised garden beds that will last for years.
Ready to build your own raised garden beds? Keep reading this tutorial to learn how to make a simple, easy DIY garden bed – or if you prefer video content, checkout our YouTube tutorial below!
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We chose to use untreated 2″ x 10″ construction lumber to build our raised garden beds. Untreated lumber is cheap, contains no unwanted chemicals, and will last a minimum of 5-10 years depending on the local climate.
You can expect the wood to hold up for 10+ years in dry climates, however, in wet areas it may need to be replaced in as little as 5 years.
Many people chose to build raised garden beds with pressure treated lumber. While the treated lumber does last longer, it also costs about double. In addition to the added expense, the chemicals used in the pressure treating process can seep into the soil.
We love eating the home grown vegetables grown from our garden, so we used untreated lumber to minimize any risk of contamination.
Four feet by eight feet is an easy size for raised garden beds because you can buy 8FT lumber, and it allows for minimal cutting. You only need to make one cut to complete this project!
The long sides of the frames are 8ft, so we used full length, un-cut 2″ x 10″ x 8FT boards. To make the boards for short sides of the frame, we just needed to cut a board in half.
Making 4FT x 4Ft square beds, is just as easy. Simply cut two boards in half and use all four boards to create a square frame.
We constructed the wood frames on our driveway to make use of the clean, flat work surface. Having a nice work surface makes the project easier, and quicker.
Long construction screws will hold the boards snugly together for the life of the raised garden bed. You can use nails to secure the frames together, but they have a tendency to start coming apart after a year or two. And sometimes warped boards will start pulling nails apart within a few days.
Moving & Prepping The Garden Bed Frames
After the raised bed frames were finished, we moved them to their spot in the back yard. The assembled frames aren’t super heavy, but they are a little bit awkward to move. Team work makes this step much easier.
Some gardeners recommend placing cardboard or landscape cloth at the bottom of the raised garden bed frames before filling with soil. This prevents existing grass, and weeds from growing up through the soil.
In our experience, using an underlayment has been unnecessary. If you decide to use shorter frames that won’t hold as much soil, then it would probably be a good idea.
To get our beds ready for soil, we used a Dewalt weed trimmer to cut the grass down as short as possible. There’s no need to remove grass and clippings – once buried, they just become compost / fertilizer.
Especially if you plan to use the raised beds for a vegetable garden, don’t use Roundup or any other harsh chemicals to kill the grass!
Pre-Made Garden Beds
If you’d rather purchase a pre-made, ready to assemble kit, check out my top picks for Best Raised Garden Beds. It includes popular designs with tons of options ranging from Galvanized Steel, to Cedar, to Rattan and many more. They’re available an a range of sizes that will work with any garden space.
Here’s one of my favorite pre-made raised garden beds. It’s available on Amazon with free Prime Shipping, and only costs around $80!
We were able to get some free top soil from a friend to fill the raised garden beds. You can usually buy inexpensive top soil at a nursery, or garden supply store if you have a pickup truck to haul it. It’s also pretty easy to buy bagged soil to fill the beds, but it does cost a little bit more.
The mix is specially blended for the soil in garden beds, and can continuously feed for up to 9 months. We added 4 bags to each raised bed.
How much soil does it take to fill a raised garden bed?
A 4ft x 8ft raised garden bed that is 10″ tall has a total volume of 24.22 cubic feet, or .9 cubic yards. I’ve found that the soil in raised garden beds will settle over the first few months, especially when you start watering the garden.
To plan ahead for this settling, make sure to over-fill the beds by a little bit. We’ve found that if you mound a few extra inches of soil over the top of the frames, it will end up settling down to flat over time. It’s difficult to add more soil later on because you’ll end up burring your plants!
Keep in mind, you shouldn’t try to compact the soil to prevent settling. Soft fluffy soil is perfect for young plants that are trying to grow roots.
Most bags of soil are either 1.5 cu. ft. per bag, or 2 cu. ft in volume. To fill a 4FT x 8FT raised bed, you’ll need (17) 1.5 cu. ft bags of soil, or (13) 2 cu. ft bags of soil.
Note: Many bags of soil are either 1.5 or 2 cu. ft, however many other sizes are available so be sure to calculate the number of bags based on the exact size of the bags you’re buying. And always round up so you can over fill the beds slightly!
To fill a 4FT x 4Ft x 10″ raised garden bed, you’ll need 12.11 cubic feet or .45 cubic yards of soil. This equates to (7) 2 cu. ft bags of soil, or (9) 1.5 cu. ft bags of soil.
I created printable garden planner has everything you need to easily organize, schedule, and plan your garden – without having to start from scratch each year!
After the two beds were filled, it was time for the fun part – planting! I planted all of our favorite vegetables, plus a few flowers, and some lavender. Raised garden beds are perfect for almost any plant.
For an easy way to get started with your raised vegetable garden, check out this Set of 30 Vegetable & Herb Seeds (Amazon). It has all the varieties you love, and they’re all Heirloom and 100% Non-GMO!
Here’s my top picks for vegetable seeds. They’re perfect for planting in raised garden beds.
You can water a raised garden bed by hand or with a sprinkler, but I recommend installing an automatic drip watering system! This solution is so convenient, it’s easy to install, and it’s way cheaper than you might think. Having the watering duties handled automatically takes the hassle out of gardening.
You don’t need a ton of fancy tools to get into gardening, but there’s a few necessities. These are the gardening tools I recommend:
How To Keep Deer And Other Animals Out
If you live in a rural area, there’s a good chance that deer could eat your precious vegetables! This 7.5FT Garden Netting (Amazon)is the perfect solution. It’s durable, easy to install, and keeps birds, deer and other animals out of your raised garden beds.
Looking for more outdoor inspiration? You’re gonna love these posts:
By cutting the grass down to almost nothing and filling in with soil, we didn’t have any issues with grass growing up through the soil. If you are worried about that, I would recommend putting a layer of weed barrier down to be safe.
LisaMarch 29, 2019 - 9:25 am
Hello Ashley, I love your raised garden bed, I want to use this for my vegetable garden this yea. Last year I used weed fertilizer on the lawn and black mulch is on so parts of my lawn that fell out from the edging garden against the house. I need to know if this will effect my vegetable garden, even if i try to clean it up and use your advice of soil, reg soil, miracle grow and peet moss. Thanks, Lisa
Hi Lisa! I wouldn’t worry about the weed killer you put on the lawn last year, all of it should be gone at this point. I would just trim the grass inside the bed down really short (we used a weed wacker on ours), and then put your soil mix right on top. It should be fine! Happy gardening!
Marie AntionetteJuly 30, 2019 - 6:31 am
Thanks for the A-Z tutorial! I will definitely be doing this, and laying weed barrier. Can’t wait!
Nice and detailed instruction to build a raised garden bed. I think it is late for this year to build and grow veggies, I will get myself prepared for next year.
Thanks Frenchie! The biggest issue I foresee with building these on top of cement is that the soil would not be able to drain properly… I would not install a bottom, and I would recommend drilling several small holes around the base of the frames for water drainage.
What about critters like rabbits? Isn’t the raised garden still low enough for them to be able to get into your garden and help themselves? What do you do to deter them?
Hi Janice! We haven’t really had problems with little critters like rabbits. But to make the raised beds taller, you can just make a 2nd identical frame and stack them on top of each-other, and fasten them together.
MeganMarch 2, 2020 - 11:46 am
So excited I followed your steps on this blog and just built my first 4×8 garden beds from recycled wood at our house all while the husband was at work.
I have been doing raised beds for 10 years now. They say they will last 5 years. I am in Maine. Some of mine have lasted the 10 years. But most of them the 4″x4″ corner posts the ants have eaten up. So I have been replacing beds for the past 3 years now.
Have read some where that cinnamon keeps the ants from eating the wood. Have tried it with the last bed I replaced.
Mine where 12″X 16’X 4′ . That size is ok but you need something to sit on on the 2″ edge of the board. My new one are ranging from 4′ wide to 3′ wide depending where they are. Any new beds I am making 24″ high so that it is much easier for me to pick and not have to sit down on the edge.
My suggestion is to try cedar posts to hold them together. The boards are not rotting that fast just the corners.
I have my original 2 that this year I will have to repair. They have asparagus in them so it will be harder to repair them.
Mine has been trail and error since I did not know how to do them when I started.
My best beds the soil was made by the lasagna method. This is a layering on peat moss compost, cardboard on bottom. I have found this has worked out great for me.
I have been composting right into my beds for the past 2 summers now. It has increased the worms a lot. Which helps your soil.
Good luck.
24 comments
I love your garden map diagram. Ha!! Very organized. ??
You guys are so handy!! I wish I could build my own little garden. Great post babe!!
xx,
Abby
Thanks! Luckily I had my husband around to do all the hard work 😉
What kind of flowers grow well in a raised bed? What about perennials?
I think perennials would do great! I have lavender in mine, but I’ve seen other people grow marigolds and daffodils too!
Thanks for the info. Since it’s getting late in the season, I’m just going to throw a few annuals in and see how they do. Practice makes perfect!
These look great and simple! How’d the depth do for you? Would you recommend going deeper or did your plants do well at that soil depth?
The depth worked great! I don’t think you’d need to go any deeper than this.
how did you not get grass growing up from below? don’t you need to kill the grass before the dirt?
By cutting the grass down to almost nothing and filling in with soil, we didn’t have any issues with grass growing up through the soil. If you are worried about that, I would recommend putting a layer of weed barrier down to be safe.
Hello Ashley, I love your raised garden bed, I want to use this for my vegetable garden this yea. Last year I used weed fertilizer on the lawn and black mulch is on so parts of my lawn that fell out from the edging garden against the house. I need to know if this will effect my vegetable garden, even if i try to clean it up and use your advice of soil, reg soil, miracle grow and peet moss. Thanks, Lisa
Hi Lisa! I wouldn’t worry about the weed killer you put on the lawn last year, all of it should be gone at this point. I would just trim the grass inside the bed down really short (we used a weed wacker on ours), and then put your soil mix right on top. It should be fine! Happy gardening!
Thanks for the A-Z tutorial! I will definitely be doing this, and laying weed barrier. Can’t wait!
You’re so welcome! And that’s a great idea 🙂
Nice and detailed instruction to build a raised garden bed. I think it is late for this year to build and grow veggies, I will get myself prepared for next year.
Glad you found this tutorial helpful, Bala!
Great idea! Do you have any recommendations for building these on a cemented (ground) backyard? Thinking maybe there should be a bottom…Maybe?
Thanks Frenchie! The biggest issue I foresee with building these on top of cement is that the soil would not be able to drain properly… I would not install a bottom, and I would recommend drilling several small holes around the base of the frames for water drainage.
What about critters like rabbits? Isn’t the raised garden still low enough for them to be able to get into your garden and help themselves? What do you do to deter them?
Hi Janice! We haven’t really had problems with little critters like rabbits. But to make the raised beds taller, you can just make a 2nd identical frame and stack them on top of each-other, and fasten them together.
So excited I followed your steps on this blog and just built my first 4×8 garden beds from recycled wood at our house all while the husband was at work.
Woo-hoo! Way to go Megan! Love this!
I have been doing raised beds for 10 years now. They say they will last 5 years. I am in Maine. Some of mine have lasted the 10 years. But most of them the 4″x4″ corner posts the ants have eaten up. So I have been replacing beds for the past 3 years now.
Have read some where that cinnamon keeps the ants from eating the wood. Have tried it with the last bed I replaced.
Mine where 12″X 16’X 4′ . That size is ok but you need something to sit on on the 2″ edge of the board. My new one are ranging from 4′ wide to 3′ wide depending where they are. Any new beds I am making 24″ high so that it is much easier for me to pick and not have to sit down on the edge.
My suggestion is to try cedar posts to hold them together. The boards are not rotting that fast just the corners.
I have my original 2 that this year I will have to repair. They have asparagus in them so it will be harder to repair them.
Mine has been trail and error since I did not know how to do them when I started.
My best beds the soil was made by the lasagna method. This is a layering on peat moss compost, cardboard on bottom. I have found this has worked out great for me.
I have been composting right into my beds for the past 2 summers now. It has increased the worms a lot. Which helps your soil.
Good luck.
Thanks for sharing all of these amazing tips, Rosemary!
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