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One Hundred Dollars a Month

I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

How to Build Raised Garden Beds for Growing Vegetables

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By on · 17 Comments

How to Build Raised Garden Beds for Growing VegetablesYou know how once in awhile your spouse will do something for you that makes you ridiculous happy? That’s the case with these garden beds. The HH built these planter boxes for me and it literally saved my life. If there’s one thing I need, it’s dirt {Well, and a fence}. And I was starting to have serious dirt withdrawals until he swooped in, built these and made my life complete.

These are a great depth for planting root crops, and just what I wanted. But you could always add a few more timbers if you wanted to make the garden bed deeper. I also choose to stain the outside of the garden beds for the sake of prettiness. But they look just fine and are just as functional without the stain.

Supplies You’ll Need

(12) 4″x 4″x 10′ wood posts
Variable speed reversing drill with grip
7/8″ drill bit
(4) 3/4″x 48″ wooden dowels
Tape measure
Hammer
Extension cord
Skill saw
Pencil
Vacuum
Miter saw

4x4 postsDirections
Depending on your budget and the wood available in your area, you’ll need to select the wood you will use for this project. While cedar is ideal, Douglass fir is a great alternative and about half the price of cedar. Using a skill saw, measure and cut the following pieces to length:

(8) 4″x4″x10′ wood posts
(8) 4″x4″x5′ wood posts

building raised garden beds

Assemble the garden box on an even surface using the 10′ lengths on the sides and the 5′ lengths on the ends. Stack the wood four pieces high, staggering the corners as you go.

building garden boxes

Once you have your four layers of wood lined up, give your garden box a final check to make sure all the pieces are in place.

drill bit into wood

Starting in the corner of your garden box, use a 7/8″ drill bit to drill through all four pieces of wood. Be sure and keep your drill bit nice and straight as you drill through the wood.

It is helpful to have someone sucking up the wood shavings with a vacuum as you drill the holes into the wood. If you don’t vacuum the wood shavings as you go, the drill bit could get stick in the hole you are drilling and become difficult to remove.

pounding dowel into wood

Once you have your corner holes drilled, insert a wooden dowel. Using a hammer, pound in the dowel through all layers of the wood.

cutting dowel

Using a miter saw, saw the excess dowel so it is flush with the top layer of wood. Once you have the corner holes drilled and a dowel in place, drill another set of holes about 4 inches away from the center hole and repeat steps 7 though 9 until all the corners are secure.
diy wood garden box Once your garden box is finished, find the perfect place in your yard for it.raised garden boesThen give yourself a big fat thumbs up for a job well done.raised garden boxesI filled with lots of compost and I was on my way to growing some tasty little veggies in my fancy schmancy boxes! How to Build Raised Garden Beds for Growing Vegetables

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Comments

  1. Thank you so much!! I was waiting on your article for so long and the hubby was starting to put pressure on me to start building ours but I wanted to wait on your article!! Thanks Thanks! 🙂 I will send pictures when we’re done building ours 🙂

    Reply

  4. Thanks for the great tutorial! How do you keep all of the pieces lined up while you are drilling the holes?

    Reply

  6. I have found that I have a 2′ reach so instead of a 5’wide box I build a 4′ wide box. It makes it easier for weeding and harvesting

    Reply

    • I did the same, but for a different reason. My local Home Depot had untreated 4x4s in 8′ length only. So I did a 4′ x 8′ raised garden bed. It’s a great size.

      Reply

  8. We had a difficult time getting the 1 inch dowel into. 7/8 inch hole. The4x 4s split. Just not as simple as depicted. We’ll adjust for the second bed.

    Reply

    • I think the issue is that you purchased the wrong size dowels. You use a 3/4 inch dowel for the 7/8 inch hole. Mine slid in perfectly with little hammering needed. I think the idea is that it has a little bit of play, since when the wood is wet it will swell. By using a slightly smaller dowel than the drilled hole size, you mitigate the risk of splitting the 4x4s when the wood is wet.

      Reply

  10. Hi Mavis,

    I love your garden. I’m planning to make a raised bed and was wondering how much it cost you to build it.

    Thanks
    HG.

    Reply

    • We used very expensive timbers for this project becuase I wanted a certain look and we had to buy a special drill bit. I want to say the cost was $280 for the supplies to build both garden boxes and the soil to fill them.

      Reply

      • This estimate is on par with what it cost me. Since my local Home Depot had untreated 4x4s in only 8′ length, I ended up building a 4′ x 8′ raised garden bed. The 4x4x8s go for $15.59 each, so 12 of them is $187.08. The dowels are $2.88, so 4 of them is $11.52. A 7/8″ x 17″ Auger drill bit is ~$30. And I filled my raised garden bed with compost. I purchased 1.5 cubic yards of compost at $35/yard, so that was around $55 + $25 delivery.

        Total was about $300 all in. You can take $30 off that cost for any subsequent builds, since you already have the bit.

        Reply

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