Raised bed Garden Installation using cedar fence boards
This is a summary slideshow showing the various stages of building my raised bed garden out of cedar fence posts and 2×4’s screwed together to form a 4×4 used as support posts. I’m pleased with the overall result however i forgot to take drainage into account. If i had to do this again i would have done this out of cinder blocks. First i would level the ground and place flat concrete tiles 16″x16″x4″ (or poured a foundation) leaving about 3″ or 4″ between them to fill with rocks for drainage. Then I’d mortar the cinder blocks together probably going 3 levels high. I’d then fill the first 4-8″ of the bed with more rocks for drainage. Lay a screen of some sort on top of the rocks then add your soil. You could stocco, or something similar, the side walls if you wanted and lay down blocks on the tope level to create a ledge to sit on. I haven’t done any of this yet so it’s all “in Theory” but i think it create a longer lasting and stronger raised bed without increasing the cost too much if any.
4 Responses to Raised bed Garden Installation using cedar fence boards
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Good work.
gwdurham
November 3, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Thanks for viewing my video. My advice would be to spring for 4×4 cedar posts instead for the 2 2×4’s I screwed together to form posts because I’m cheap, haha. Two 8′ 4×4 cedar posts cut into 30″ sections should be enough giving you 6 posts, assuming you build a 3’x8′ bed like i did. Best of luck to ya and let me know if you have any questions when you get started, i’ll be glad to help you out any way i can.
MessyRecipe
November 3, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Hey man, thanks for the comment. Yeah I really liked your set up, it’s nice how you staggered the 4×4’s from outside to inside I thought that was a nice touch and probably functions to help keep the cedar boards from bowing out.
Yeah I’m not so sure the plastic on the inside walls is needed. If you check out some of my “aquatube” videos that might help explain why i did that. Basically I was concerned the repeated blasting those walls would get over time would accelerate rotting.
MessyRecipe
November 3, 2012 at 4:23 pm
Good stuff, I used a very similar concept. Check out my progress on my videos.
Looks like you used plastic on the inside. Is there a reason why?
PREPPERNW
November 3, 2012 at 5:00 pm