Backyard Raised Garden Beds – Part 2

Are you ready to learn about raised garden bed construction and planting? It was almost a month ago that I shared Backyard Raised Garden Beds – Part 1, where I dove into the details of planning raised garden beds. In that post, I shared the building plans for the project, my planting plan, and the sources for my supplies. The raised beds are now complete, and in this week’s post, Backyard Raised Garden Beds – Part 2, I’m happy to share the building and planting process and photos of the completed project. My plant babies are very young and I promise I’ll share one final post in about a month to show you how the beds have filled out. I’ll be able to share more tips and lessons learned at that point.

Project Recap

The plan was to build three identical 4′ by 8′ raised garden beds for the back of our suburban backyard. I decided on a planter box depth of 23.5″ to give a sufficient depth on our slightly sloping ground. Next, I chose a sunny location in our yard so that I could grow sun-loving vegetables for our family to enjoy all summer and into early fall. I ended up placing the raised beds 2.5′ apart from each other and the side fence in order to allow the lawnmower between the beds.

Building Plans For The Backyard Raised Garden Beds

I found these simple and free plans from RealCedar.com. They provide detailed plans and a video of the construction process. You can see the plans I used here. I followed the plans exactly except I added an extra 2 by 6 board on each side for extra height. The finished height is 23.5″ including the top ledge.

The Plantings

I used the Old Farmer’s Almanac Garden Planner to create a plan for the raised bed plantings. It was easy to use and it provided me with a visual plan, shopping list, and useful information about the planting and care of each plant. You can view my planting plans here.

Supplies For The Backyard Raised Garden Beds

I used the shopping list provided on the RealCedar.com raised bed plans, with the provision for additional wood for the height adjustment I mentioned earlier. I substituted 2.5″ (size 8) deck screws for some of the 3″ screws which I found were slightly too long. The Eastern Red Cedar boards were purchased from a local wood supplier, The Wood Source, in Manotick, Ontario.

Assembly Of The Raised Garden Beds

I chose to construct the long side of the planter boxes in the garage. I also cut all the pieces and mitred corners in the garage before moving everything to the backyard for the final construction. The boxes would have been too large and heavy to move if I had completely assembled them in the garage first. The tools I used for this project were: a compound mitre saw, two cordless drills (one for a drill bit, the other for a screwdriver head), pencil, level, right angle, measuring tape, sandpaper, safety glasses and a dust mask. I simply followed the directions from RealCedar.com.

Once I transported all the pieces to the backyard, my two teenagers helped me hold the pieces in place while I drilled and secured the short sides to the long sides.

Placement Of The Raised Beds

Next, I measured exactly where I wanted the garden beds to go and dug around the perimeter. Since the ground wasn’t level, I removed some soil around the front of the beds where the ground was higher. I cut a channel around the perimeter and checked it with a level to ensure that the wood frame would sit level once installed. I enlisted my boys again to help place the wooden frames. This part was challenging as additional grass and soil needed to be removed and it was an iterative process.

Once everything was level, I checked to make sure the opposing corner distances were equal. Thankfully they were, and I then added the top trim pieces using the 2 by 4 cedar lumber pieces. I mitred the corners to give it a nice finished look.

The finished planters turned out just the way I had hoped. I like the little ledge at the top which is perfect for sitting on while gardening. My youngest sat here and enjoyed a popsicle on the very first day they were complete.

Base Of The Planters

I placed the beds directly on the grass. To smother the grass and discourage grass and weeds from climbing up through the beds, I lined the base with cardboard boxes. The cardboard boxes will disintegrate within one season. Since there are two feet of soil between the ground and the planter tops, I don’t think I need to worry too much about grass and weeds growing up through the soil. I’m sure there will be much less weeding to do than in my in-ground garden.

Stain/Wood Protector

After doing some research on stains and UV protectors, I concluded that any treatment would likely lead to the leaching of chemicals into the soil, which is not what I wanted for our organic garden. So, I decided to leave them untreated. Cedar is naturally resistant to degradation and the beds should still last about 10 years. Without protection from the sun, they will gradually age to a silvery grey tone.

Garden Soil

I purchased high-quality organic soil from Greely Sand and Gravel. Unfortunately, the two cubic yards I purchased were not enough and I had to supplement it with a few (30!) 25 L bags from the Real Candian Superstore. The initial load of soil was deposited on our driveway in the middle of a rainstorm, but I covered it with about four tarps and it didn’t get too wet. I had a dream that night that the rain washed all the soil away and I was left with a too-small pile!

I borrowed our neighbour’s wheelbarrow and transported the soil to the backyard in about 40 trips. It took almost an entire day, but it was rewarding to see the garden beds fill up.

Plants

I decided to grow all of my plants from seeds indoors while construction of the beds occurred outdoors In Ottawa, frost can continue until the end of May, so planting outdoors is delayed. I purchased my seeds from the Old Farmer’s Almanac planting list at The Home Depot. They had a great selection of organic seeds and heirloom varieties. I used planting trays and seed-starting soil mix and I placed the trays next to the window. Once the weather improved, I placed the trays outdoors for a few hours each day to harden off the seedlings and prepare them for planting.

Some of my planned plants, like peas, beans, carrots, radishes, and swiss chard prefer to be planted directly outdoors, so these ones I planted as seeds directly in the raised beds. I grew the nasturtiums, dill, cilantro, cucumbers, zucchini, corn, beets, kale, and lettuce indoors and planted most of these this past weekend. I’m waiting until later this week to plant the most-temperature sensitive plants (zucchini, cucumber). I got a late start on the nasturtiums so they will also be going out later this week.

Supports

I’m using supports for my peas and cucumbers and have tied the corn to bamboo stakes until they’re strong enough to support themselves. The corn stalks will then act as supports for the pole beans I planted around them in a Three Sisters planting. I hope the corn has a good enough head start to provide adequate support.

Summary

Thank you for reading my post, Backyard Raised Garden Beds – Part 2. If you’re thinking about starting your own raised garden beds, I hope you found this post useful. If you liked this post, you might like some of my other posts that have to do with plants and gardening.

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