DIY Raised Garden Bed

I've never been amazing with plants. In fact, the one plant I have that has survived over 5 moves is a plastic ficus I bought at Hobby Lobby. I'm not letting that stop me. Within the 2-3 years, my husband and I have really changed our lifestyle and introduced many more vegetables, fruits and less processed foods into our daily regime. We've always talked about doing our own garden, but just never have been in one place long enough to start one. My mother always tended a small vegetable garden when I was growing up, and I miss the feeling of eating what you've grown. Well with the help of Pinterest, Lowe's and Google we decided to start our own.

Supplies:

(3) 6ft x 1ft boards (cut one in half)
22 cubic feet of gardening soil (about 10 big bags)
cardboard
various seeds/seedlings

My husband nailed the boards together to form the box first.

Then we laid it where we wanted in the backyard and placed a layer of cardboard on the bottom first. The cardboard is biodegradable and keeps the weeds/grass out.

Then the filling and compacting starts.

Next comes the sowing! We had a huge thunderstorm roll in the afternoon we set this up, so we had to plant the seeds/seedlings the following day. This is what we're planting:

When it came to the planting part, we just followed the directions on the back of the seed packets on how deep/far apart to bury them. Green thumbs unite and we have a vegetable garden!


What we really loved about the idea of a raised garden bed is that it isn't dependent on the soil you have where you live. The start-up cost for us was a little over $100. Next year we'll only have to buy the seeds and maybe a little soil so the cost will be minimal. Now let's see if we can grow our own food! Can't get much greener than that.