Preparing My First Raised Bed Site

There are many choices to make when deciding where to place the raised bed vegetable gardens - Sunlight, physical access, access to water, visual appeal, amount of labor needed. 

The first step in preparing the sites was choosing the locations. One site was the double dug location I prepared a few years ago. There are a few reasons I chose that site. The first reason was sunlight. This location gets at least 6 hours of full sunlight each day. The second reason was access. It is just off the concrete pad behind and in full view from the family room. Second reason was it was close enough to the house and has easy access to a water supply.  Third reason was that a great deal of labor has already been expended to create it. If I chose a different spot I would need to do a that work again.

The next step was to level the site. First I removed the weeds and any excess soil. 

The area needed for the raised bed was 4' x 4' /1.2m x 1.2m. Above you see a board 4'/1.2m in length placed at the edge of the concrete patio. I extended the leveled area to include a 1'/30cm wood chip or mulch border around the plot to suppress weed growth.

The next step was to cover the leveled plot with landscape cloth to resist weed growth under the raised bed. I laid out the cloth allowing it to cover the border and cut it to length.

I then folded the length in half and creased the fold. This crease gave me a straight line on which to cut.

The roll of landscape cloth is 4' wide. Cutting in half length-wise produced two 2'/60cm wide pieces.

Those two pieces covered the border areas, overlapping in the corner.

I rolled out some more cloth, covering the cloth on the end border and part of the side cloth. I didn't cut the cloth off the roll because I will be continuing the cloth under a path and under the second raised bed. The fewer breaks in the cloth the less likely something will grow from under the cloth.

I made a few staples to hold down the cloth before I put the beds over them. The wind might have blown them around if I didn't. (You can see my instructions for making the staples in an earlier post.)

Then it was time to place the frame over the cloth.

With the frame in place, the next step was to level the frame. Why? Because water seeks its own level. I didn't want any puddles or low, wet spots.

Here you can see the frame is way out of level with the bubble on the right side of the vial. When the frame is level the bubble will be within the two black lines. Perfectly level the bubble will be evenly spaced within the black lines.

The air in the vial is lighter than the liquid. So if the bubble is on the right side of the vial that is the high side. To get an idea of how much the left side must be raised to level the frame I raised the left side of the level. When the bubble moved to a position within the black lines on the vial, the left side of the level was a good 1/2"/12mm higher than the frame. That meant I had to raise the left side by at least 1/2"/12mm or lower the right side by as much.

I opted to lower the right side. I initially tried to do that by whacking it with an engineer's maul. I placed a board between the maul and the bed frame to minimize damaging the frame and started to pounding.

You can see the damage to the sacrificial board from the maul. The frame just wasn't going down and I was hitting it hard. Maybe, I needed to remove some soil from under the frame?

I moved the frame and saw there was some older landscape cloth under the frame. That old cloth was spreading out the force of the maul blows and not allowing the bed frame from compressing the soil. So I pulled up the old cloth, removed some soil, replaced the bed frame and went back to whaling on the board.

The frame still wasn't going down, so I sat on the frame to keep it from bouncing as I beat the board. After a few minutes of continued bludgeoning I had it to where the bubble was almost within the lines. I settled for that.

With the bed frame back in place and almost level, I noticed some light coming in under the far side of the frame. Not good. This might allow weeds to grow under or soil to escape.

I decided to tamp some excess soil under the frame to keep both of those events from happening in the future. Using one of the 3'/.9m lengths of 2x12/50mm x 30cm, I pushed the soil under the landscape cloth that was under the frame. 

All ready for the soil.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Constructing Raised Bed Frame

I want to make the raised beds as close to 1'/30cm deep as possible. Mel Bartholomew, author of The Square Foot Garden claims a 6"/15cm depth of soil is OK. I think 1'/30cm is required. Therefore, my choice of lumber was 2" x 12"/ 50mm x 30cm boards.

The finished dimensions of the beds will be 4' x 4'/ 1.2m x 1.2m. There were only two lengths of 2x12s available at my home improvement store, 12' long and 16' long. I didn't want to have any waste but that wasn't possible with only those two lengths available. I calculated the most efficient purchase to be two 2" x 12" x 16'/ 50mm x 30cm x 4.9m and one 2" x 12" x 12'/ 50mm x 30cm x 3.6m for the sides. Adding one 2" x 4" x 8'/ 50mm x 101 x 1.4m board to connect the corners.

I had the boards cut at the home improvement store in order that they fit into the car. The 16' 2x12s were cut into four 4'6"/1.37m, two 4'/1.2m and two 3'/.9m lengths. The 12' 2x12 was cut into four 4'/1.2m lengths. The 8' 2x4 was cut into eight 1'/30cm lengths. The 3'/.9m lengths of 2x12s will not be used and are therefore, waste.

When you are buying the lumber choose the straightest boards with as few knots, checks and cracks as you can find. This is not absolutely imperative but will get you the best product and keep the splitting on the ends to a minimum.

The first task is to check the ends of the boards for squareness. To do that use a framing square. The one in the photograph is a 2'/ 31cm square. The reason to check is that the saw may not have been set up correctly. If it was not, the ends will be out of square. Out of square ends will make construction more difficult. You can see in the above photograph the end is square. 

Next task was to screw one 1' length of 2x4 to each end of the same side of the 4' 2x12s. I used three 2-1/2" exterior deck screws to attach each 2x4 length.

To keep the end splitting to a minimum place the screws in the above pattern. The top and bottom screws are spaced about 1-1/2"-2" from the top and bottom of the 2x12. If the screws are placed closer to the edges they will probably split the 2x12 reducing the holding power and stability of the joint. Place the middle screw to the inside of the 2x4, as you can see in the above photograph. If the three screws were placed inline with each other, the 2x4 may split from end to end if you kept the screws inline. If the 2x4 split in half, it would need to be replaced.

Attach all the 2x4s to all the 4' 2x12s completing that part of the construction.

Next task was to screw the 4'6" lengths to the 4' lengths. So why are there 4' and 4'6" lengths when the frames are 4' square, you ask? Well, I will explain. If all the lengths were 4' long, only the inside edges of the ends would touch. There would be no overlap so the two boards can be fastened. 

Then you may ask, if the boards are a nominal 2" thick, actually 1-1/2" thick, why didn't I cut the other sides at 4' 3"? Well, here is the answer. End grain does not hold nails or screws well. The fasteners would just pull out of the ends. So, increase the lengths of the sides by 6" or 4x the 1-1/2" thickness of the boards and you can fasten the sides into the 1' lengths of 2x4s I fastened to the ends of the 4' lengths. Get the idea?

Next step is to fasten the corners. Stack several of the 4' lengths atop each other and then stand one of the 4' lengths up right next to the stack. This will help keep the upright 4' length standing upright. Then bring one of the 4'6" lengths to meet at one of the corners.

This is what the corner will look like. You can see that if the surface on which you are working is level and flat the corner will come together squarely. If not you will need to shim one of the sides to the corner meets squarely. You can see the end of the 4'6" length is already cracked. A screw placed near that crack will weaken the joint. Be careful of the screw placement.

So now is the time to screw the two boards together. If the screws are placed too close to the end of the board they will split it. Start the screws in from the end more than the thickness of the 2x4 on the 4' length and place the screws at a shallow angle. An angle that will go into the 2x4 but not exit the 2x4.

Get the picture?

Originally I wasn't going to paint the frames. But, after speaking with a few friends and my wife, I decided to paint them. Start with an exterior undercoat. Make sure to get paint on every bit of board that can be reached with the roller and then use a brush to get in even tighter crevices. 

Still there were places that had gaps. Gaps that needed caulking. Fill the gaps with paintable caulk before applying the finish coat. Two finish coats, if necessary.

To be continued ...

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Raising A Garden

For the last two years I have been growing a square foot garden. Not a raised bed, however. What I did was double dug a plot two feet deep into my lawn. Well, at least from a distance it could pass for grass. The soil was compacted clay. So what I ended up with was a two foot deep basin which retained water. 

In May of the first year it rained. Lots of rain fell. Rain filled the double dug plot, drowning most of my plants. I replaced the drown plants. The remainder of the growing season I didn't get any other drowning rainfalls. The garden was fairly successful.

Last year I wanted to build a raised bed frame but couldn't justify the expense of the wood. So on my patio, I mixed forty pounds of sand and all the shredded leaves I gathered from the front yard the autumn before with one foot of soil I dug out of the plot. I then filled the plot with the mixture and mounded the rest on top.  The plants were above the surrounding lawn, up out of any retained rain water. No plants drown and the garden yield was better.

This year I was able to fit the expense for wood into my budget by spending less on beer and whiskey, eating away from home less and making due with my current wardrobe. Such a sobering sacrifice for two 2"x12"x16'*, one 2"x12"x12'** and one 2"x4"x8'*** boards, a box of exterior screws and some landscaping cloth.

I can't wait to finish constructing the frames and raise my garden beds even higher.

*50mm x 30cm x 4.87m
**50mm x 30cm x 3.65m
***50mm x 200mm x 2.43m

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Early April Gardening Fever Leads to Death

It is early spring and Oaks Gardens is gone. It died and will be born again as Oaks Shopping Center. But fear not for lack of garden plants and supplies for Lowe's Home Improvements is just a hop, skip and a jump away. They seem to be ready to fill your gardening needs.

On the last day of March, there were already flowers, 

vegetables, 

herbs 

and plenty of garden supplies out in front of the store.

There were mostly cold hardy plants but be aware of each plant's hardiness.

I remember one year, a long time ago, I got gardening fever. It was just after moving into my first home in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. We had never had a garden in my parent's home in South Philly. So I wasn't savvy when it came to planting times.

It was very early April and I visited the nearby garden supply store in Glenside, PA. There before me were trays and trays of beautiful blooming plants. Plants that I just had to have. I was driven by desire and purchased quite a few impatiens and begonias. I spent a whole day spacing the pink, white and red plants perfectly in the front of my house. I stepped back and admired my labor and the beauty of the flowering plants.

Sometime around the sixth or seventh of the very same month a sudden snow materialized. Those tender plants were blanketed in pure fresh frozen whiteness.

All were lost.

I learned a lesson that year that I remember vividly to this day. Gardening fever may cloud your judgement and lead to death.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Behind In My Gardening

The weather has me behind schedule in my garden. Well, if I had a schedule, I would be behind.

There is a folk truism in this part of the world that says you plant onions and peas on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. I didn't even have my garden ready for planting on St. Patrick's Day. I still don't have it ready and it is almost April.

This year I want to actually raise my square foot garden. I want to get some real drip irrigation with metered emitters, not the weeping hose I have been using. Plus I want to put down 1 mil plastic mulch over the drip system to try and eliminate weeding, increase soil temperature and retain moisture.

Ten days after the pea planting target date, I ordered online a 30'/ 9.1m roll of 1 mil red plastic mulch that is 4'/ 1.2m wide. I plan on making two 4' x 4' (1.2m x 1.2m) raised beds. So I should have enough mulch to cover both beds, almost completely, four times.

To get the order minimum up to $40 in order to use a discount coupon I received in the mail, I ordered some packets of Zinnias from W. Atlee Burpee. Burpee was a Philadelphia company that I remember visiting thirty-five years ago on Clarissa St. just NW of W. Hunting Park Ave. They are now in Bucks County, PA in Warminster, PA where you can still visit their store.


I love the ease of growing Zinnias. Beside their beauty, zinnias attract bees, butterflies and goldfinch love the mature seeds. All three creatures are a pleasant plus to the garden experience.

I hope my order ships really soon. In the mean time, I need to get some 2" x 12"/ 5cm x 30cm boards and a 2"x 4"/ 5cm x 20cm board or two for the corners of the bed frames and some exterior screws with which to fasten them.

Then there is the peat moss, vermiculite and perlite for the soilless growing medium.

The vegetable seeds to buy. 

The potato towers to erect.

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I love the growing season!

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved - Photographs from Burpee.com