So excited I get to share more about our DIY garden project - building a DIY raised garden bed - thanks to the Home Depot providing a promotional item and compensation to help us with our backyard projects!
When it comes to building raised garden beds, the sky's the limit. You can make them square, round, rectangular. You can add a greenhouse on top, animal barriers, or put them up on stilts. But even using a kit, you'll still need supplies to build a DIY raised garden bed.
What you need to build a DIY Raised Garden Bed
For our garden beds we opted for a cedarwood kit in a basic rectangular shape. We have a lot of ground to cover (literally), so we purchased two kits sized 8'x4' and fit them together with the tongue and groove construction that allows for multiple kits to work together! (how cool, right?).
We checked out lumber versus kits to see if it would be more economical to build our own raised bed from scratch. In the end, buying a pre-made kit is best because it cost about the same as purchasing lumber and hardware separately, plus it saved TIME cutting and measuring all the pieces. Time, my friends, is of the essence in getting a garden built and planted!!
I picked up a variety of seed packets from an Organic seed display: Peas, radishes, carrots and Swiss Chard! Shopping on a sunny spring morning was refreshing and exciting as we picked from racks and racks of plants - I even found an interesting sounding Grapefruit Mint plant that I'll put in with the other herbs - I love collecting unusual herbs to try out!
DIY Raised Garden Bed Supply List
- raised garden bed kit - you'll find these near the trellis and fencing section.
- peat moss to aerate the soil (we have very clay-like soil) and add nutrients
- organic soil to fill in the beds - you may need quite a bit of this depending on what you already have in your yard for top soil
- hummus for water retention and to aerate soil
- compost / manure mixture to add nutrients
- landscape fabric - because I hate weeding! Also the black fabric helps warm the ground, which is good for our New England climate. I think it also helps with lowering evaporation rates, so the soil retains more water.
- plants! of course!
- optional: if you don't have tools already, you'll want a shovel, rake, hammer, and possibly some twine to mark off the beds.
What are we planting? Well, first we want to discourage pests - like deer, woodchucks, rabbits and other nighttime garden marauders! I bought marigolds to border the beds as they help deter the deer. Plus they make a bright and cheerful edge around the garden!
The first part of our garden beds I've decided will be our "salsa garden!" No, we're not doing Spanish dances in the dirt! Instead, we've planted onion bulbs, jalepeno peppers, parsley, cilantro and tomatoes - all the ingredients for whipping up a batch of homemade salsa when everything is ripe! Mmmmm-mmm!
The rest of the bed will be home to our greens and spring veggies like radish, peas, and Swiss chard. Plus beans, carrots and more tomatoes and peppers!
Get DIY Raised Garden Bed Supplies Online
Best Value Cedar Raised Garden Bed Planter 24Best Value 3-Tier Cedar Raised Garden Bed Planter 48
Easy Gardener 21041MJ 3-Foot by 50-Foot 15 Year Landscape Fabric
Espoma PTM8 8-Quart Organic Peat Moss
Organic, Heirloom, Non-GMO, Garden Seeds - 7 Varieties of Vegetable Leafy Power Greens - Arugula, Kale, Lolla Rossa Lettuce, Buttercrunch Lettuce, Gourmet Mix Lettuce, Spinach, Swiss Chard
Aoyoho Hot 100PCS 5 Colors Waterproof Plastic Nursery Garden Labels T-type Plant Tags Markers with Marker Pen
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.
I would love to make a garden like this with my daughter.
Beautiful!! I never knew they had those great shapes available!
Perfect!!! I want to do this so bad! They are pretty, plus it might keep my dogs from digging. Thank you for your tips!!
I absolutely love that raised flower shaped flower bed, that is so pretty! I'd love to add that to our yard. Thanks for sharing these ideas and tips!
I absolutely love that raised flower shaped flower bed, that is so pretty! I'd love to add that to our yard. Thanks for sharing these ideas and tips!
My husband is insistent we do raised garden beds for our garden this summer, so I'm hoping the outcome will be a lush bounty!
My husband is insistent we do raised garden beds for our garden this summer, so I'm hoping the outcome will be a lush bounty!
love this idea and would love to build one in our new backyard!
love this idea and would love to build one in our new backyard!
A salsa garden - what a wonderful idea! I really need to get moving on a veggie garden if it's gonna happen for me this year, lol!
A salsa garden - what a wonderful idea! I really need to get moving on a veggie garden if it's gonna happen for me this year, lol!
Wow, those raised beds are COOL ! I Love the shape and design- very aesthetically pleasing. I'll be over for some tomatoes, ew haven't found any good plants yet
Wow, those raised beds are COOL ! I Love the shape and design- very aesthetically pleasing. I'll be over for some tomatoes, ew haven't found any good plants yet
I lined the bottom of our raised bed with newspaper. It decomposts and keeps weeds out. 🙂
I lined the bottom of our raised bed with newspaper. It decomposts and keeps weeds out. 🙂
We are doing some pumpkins on a big scale using someone else's garden. We planted the seedlings and will be transferring them to our friend's pumpkin farm.
By the way, we just found the coolest thing at Home Depot this past weekend - Child and adult toilet seats. They are three layered. The adult sized seat, the child sized seat, and then a lid that does not slam. The kids were so excited they no longer have to use the add on seat. Yeah! Home Depot!
We are doing some pumpkins on a big scale using someone else's garden. We planted the seedlings and will be transferring them to our friend's pumpkin farm.
By the way, we just found the coolest thing at Home Depot this past weekend - Child and adult toilet seats. They are three layered. The adult sized seat, the child sized seat, and then a lid that does not slam. The kids were so excited they no longer have to use the add on seat. Yeah! Home Depot!
The 4' depth is supposed to be the ideal depth as it allows you to easily reach in to work on your garden and harvest. Regarding pests, I recently read a neat idea. A person lined the bottom of their garden box with something like chicken wire. That was supposed to help keep burrowing types of pests out. I hope your garden yields a lot for your family.
The 4' depth is supposed to be the ideal depth as it allows you to easily reach in to work on your garden and harvest. Regarding pests, I recently read a neat idea. A person lined the bottom of their garden box with something like chicken wire. That was supposed to help keep burrowing types of pests out. I hope your garden yields a lot for your family.