Hey Everybody, Alex Here...The Holiday weekend is over and we managed to get a lot of little things taken care of around the house. Yesterday, Carla had her hands full with some front yard/curb appeal projects and I got my hands dirty in the backyard with the simple but fun project below. I hope you enjoy and maybe even try making some of your own.
These elevated garden boxes were ridiculously easy to build and install and the new “Cedar Toned” Pressure Treated lumber that I picked up at Home Depot made for a very classy look (at a fraction of the standard Cedar price) for our back yard.
Here’s a list of materials that you’ll need to make three of your own garden boxes measuring 8' length x 2' width x 1' height.
15 – Pressure Treated (Cedar Tone) 1x6x8’s
3 – Pressure Treated (Cedar Tone) 4x4x8’s
1 – 1lb box of #9x3” deck screws
1 – 4x50 roll of weed stop sheeting
??? – Dirt/Plants/Seeds of your choice!
To start with, my design would use five of the 1'x6'x8' boards for each box. Four of these would remain the full 8' length and the fifth gets cut into four equal 2' lengths. I then cut one of the 4x4x8’s into 5 chunks that were each 18” in length (only 4 are used per box so you will have some scrap lumber unless you decide to cut them all at 24”).
The final construction step was simply connecting the two ends using four of the 1x6x8’ boards. To accomplish this, I spaced the ends apart and squared the 1'x6' boards in place and attached with the decking screws. Repeat this step for the remaining “long side” and then you’re ready to place in your desired location. So Easy!!
We chose to place the completed boxes along the southern fence border of our yard. This area should get plentiful sunshine and was in desperate need of a little pick me up anyway. Once our location was decided on, I cleared some existing vegetation and did a little work to level the ground before “dry fitting” the garden box in place. After the test placement, I grabbed my post hole diggers and dug out 4 holes for the 4"x4" legs to fit into. These are really just to stabilize the box and prevent it from shifting (If you’re in the mood for something more permanent you could always use longer legs and then cement them in place).
Before dropping the legs into place and filling with dirt, I dropped down a good double layer of the weed block fabric to prevent any unwanted plant life from sprouting up.
Now, simply add dirt and the fruit/veggies/flowers of your choice! We had quite a bit of fun planting our first garden together for this project and it is a great addition to our backyard! The relatively low cost of completion and seriously short amount of time required to build will be fresh in our minds later this summer when we have some great homegrown fruits and vegetables on the table!
What do you think of our DIY planter/ garden boxes?
What are some good tips/tricks for growing your own fruits and veggies?
It's our first attempt at growing our own and I hope they turn out. If you have any tips please let us know!