Make Your Own Raised Beds

With life being put on pause and lots of time at home, we decided it was no better time than to create our own victory garden! Up first: create our own plot of raised beds! Raised beds let you control the soil, they’re easier on your back, and I think they’re so charming. I really wanted to create a kitchen garden with room for flowers - a french potagêr garden if you will! Sam’s amazing and does all of the wood working so these instructions are from him. See our day one garden right here!

Step by step from Sam:

You will need:

Wood:

• Cedarwood boards - 1x6x8 (9)

• Cedarwood boards - 4x4x8 (1)

Screws:

• 2 ½” x 24 1 ¼” x 48

Dirt:

• Minimum 12-13 bags of 2cu.ft. bags organic soil

Weed block:

• Enough to cover the ground underneath your bed and surrounding area if desired

Hardware cloth (optional)

• 1x3x25 - ¼” squares (1 roll)

Method:

• Cut 6 sections of your 1x6 boards at 3’ (save your drops)

• Mark a line on board at 18” (center mark) Use your speed square to carry the line you just made over the entire board face

• Use your speed square to measure and mark a line 1.75” from the ends of the board on both ends.

• Mark a circle at 1.5” from the top and bottom of this line

• Cut 4 sections of your 4x4 at 16.5’

• Cut 8 sections of your remaining 1x6 boards at 16.5” (these are your braces)

  • Create markings on your 1x6x8 boards at the following increments:

  • Center line is at 48.75”

  • Mark 2 additional lines at 24 ⅜” on your left and right ends

  • Draw circle markers 1.5” from top and bottom of all lines

Using the marks you made while cutting your materials, screw 1x6x8 boards to 4x4 boards. Make sure top and bottom boards are flush to side and top / bottom of 4x4.

Using the marks you made while cutting your materials, screw 1x6x3 boards to 4x4 boards. Make sure the outside edge of the 1x6x3 is flush to the outside edge of the 1x6x8 on all 4 corners.

This will put your overall length of the raised bed at 97.5”. Width should still be 3’. Check to make sure bed is square-ish by measuring diagonals. They should be roughly the same.

Attach your 1’x6’x16.5” braces to all pre-marked spots on your boards. There should be 8 in total.

I think that’s it! If you have any questions drop us a comment below! - Sam