WARNING: This is a walk through for beginners, so don't pester me with 'Captain Obvious'. I'm preempting questions based on my own mess ups, and hoping others don't do the same.
This is nothing special - it's just a 4x4 garden bed as outlined in a zillion and one square foot garden blogs, articles and books. But for what it's worth, I hope this answers questions helps with a lack of info that can bite you in the arse if you do it for yourself.
The big question people ask is 'cost' and the answer is 'depends' - depends on tools you have and want to use, depends on availablility of your lumber, depends on what you fill it with, and filling is the thing you should keep in mind. This particular one, with some careful shopping, cost me under 50 bucks to put together. Your mileage will probably vary.
Supplies:
The Walls
My last bed was made from my previous garden beds so it cost me nothing - you could use reclaimed wood or whatever.. the only thing you need is 6 inches of width - because your garden bed is 6 inches high. Now when I say 'need' I mean it as 'you won't outgrow this garden bed later' - you could grow just about anything in it. You could use 2x4's and grown only plants with shallow roots, but sooner or later you'll wish you didn't.. so if you can - go 6 inch timber.Now I bought mine this time - as I'm running behind schedule and didn't have the time to scrounge, also this exterior lumber was on special (there is a reason - and I'll show you a little later..) I paid $3 each for these 2x6x10's. When you buy timber you have to be aware of a few things... a 2x4 or a 2x6 in this case isn't 2 inches wide. and an 8ft long board may not be 8ft long, and even if it is, you can't cut it into two 4 ft lengths anyways.
If you're new to tools and wood, this can bite you in the ass constantly.. you have to be almost paranoid. Stay Alert, Trust No One, Keep Tape Measure Handy!
On our 2 inches wide we don't have to worry - because that's not really important here - our depth of 6 inches - if it's a bit high or a bit low it's not going to make that big a deal either.. BUT that length.. you're paying for that length, and a mistake can be costly. I bought two 10 foot long boards, and here's the reason:
The actual dimensions on the ground (4x4) of the finished bed are pretty important - not 'millimeter accuracy' important - but if each square is 'a foot' - it shouldn't be out by a 1/4 inch, and it should be square - not cabinet maker square - but it's a 'square foot garden' not a 'rhombus foot garden'.
If I buy an 8 foot board, measure 4 feet down, and cut... I'm going to be left with whatever length they gave me (not guarranteed at 8 foot anyways) MINUS the width of my saw blade cut... that can be an 8th of an inch... so that will throw you out by a quarter inch on 2 boards, which depending how you line that up... well.. good luck being square. Rectangle at best.
Not only that, but you're going to have a 4 x 4 bed measured from the OUTSIDE.. so when you divide it up - your rhombus looking thing is going to be too small..
If you're thinking 'holy crap this shit is complex' - no.. it's DEAD SIMPLE.. I'm just showing how a little extra knowledge from a guy who MADE THAT MISTAKE can save you a lot of cursing.
A couple of extra bucks gets you the 10ft long board, and you'll have a little offcut (under a foot), you'll learn an easy trick to making sure all the sides work, and you'll be happier in general.. If you're scrounging wood - look for that extra 2 feet as well. You'll be doubly happy coz you also screwed it to 'the man'.
The Dividers
Ok, you also have some lattice there. it's just thin wood strips - again I got it on a 'get this crap outta here' special in a bundle of 10 strips - I only need 6, so I got to pick the 'best' ones. If you have a table saw you can cut this down from a 2x4 yourself, pick up that cheap ass 2.50 bit of stud lumber and have at it. You might need 2 (I did) if you run into knots or mess up a cut. I got mine for 6.00 - so I paid 1 buck extra, saved me some work and headaches - the special was worth it for me.The Bottom
Some say this is optional - I say this is needed. You've gone to the trouble of making this thing, so lets finish strong and do it right. I put a 'bottom' in my beds of landscaping fabric. This will stop a lot of weeds and grass growing up from the bottom. 2 of the 'dug down' beds close to the house don't have it, and I STILL weed them and yank grass strands growing out of them a year later. So go the extra mile and do it. You'll thank yourself, or curse yourself for ignoring this.Also, this is one of those times where paying that little extra can help you out.
This is what I use. It's a sturdy fabric material that lasts - it's on the side of my compost frame and still holds despite how thin it looks. I've used cheaper plastic products and been very dissapointed. This stuff cost me 10 bucks a roll. There's PLENTY, and if you use it like me - it won't be a wasted investment. You'll be seeing me lay this down on a few projects coming up later in the week (if I get time and don't have to race off to the farm).
The Tools
Again, this is what I'm using at this point. This isn't a 'need to have list' - as I also do a bit of carpentry, I have a couple of things that I'll use coz I can.
It takes a little time, and you sweat a little, but the results are the same.
It's like getting off the bus after a trip from Brisbane to Sydney:
'Smoke em if you got em'.
If you don't have one, I'd recommend buying one just because they're so damn useful for a lot of things. You can get them in plastic, mines cast in 'injure your goddamn toe if you drop it' steel. On the upside, it won't break.
Knowing the story of the accident I had with one of these in my twenties (not going to go into details - but I refer to it as 'the stigmata incident' - you can pretty much guess) he buys me a spanking new one the next Xmas.
Seriously though- he's a great guy who's had ample opportunity to do me in - in much more humorous ways if he wanted :P Seeing how I also had staples for this, I though I'd use it for that too.
LETS BUILD!
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| Measure twice - cut once. |
As we said before, that's gonna leave you with 4 4ft bits of wood that wont have a 4ft interior, and if you put them together, with 2 as sides and 2 as ends, you're also gonna have about a 3 inch difference between width and length. Why? well a 2x6 is 1 1/2 inches wide - you put that on the ENDS of 4ft, and you have just added 3 inches in one dimension..
I just saved you 2 hours of frustration - you're welcome.
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| LITERALLY Measure twice! |
Ok this is the cut line.. We're going to cut this first board then use it as a ledger to make all the others... make sure you use THIS board though - why? because we all have a tendency to cut on one side of a line or the other - if we do it from 'the last board we cut' all mistakes will multiply - this way we can only 'screw it up'.
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| All the boards are cut |
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| Lets put em together |
Use 3 inch construction screws or 3 inch deck screws - couple bucks for more than you'll need for this project at WalMart or any department store. I found Lowes to be rather pricey in this dept.
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| A picture is worth a thousand words |
Lets look at mine - it's warped out to high heaven, and you know why? Because cheap wood is cheap for a reason. This wood has a twist so bad that if I spun that plank around the center I could have launched a Sopwith Camel. Nothing short of 4 hours with a jointing plane and making all the sides 1/2 inch thinner would have fixed this. But it's ok, and to tell the truth I hardly noticed it once the thing was in place and filled.
If this were a bit of furniture or a cabinet I was working on - I'd have my wife pounding on the toilet door saying 'you've been in there 4 hours and all I hear is sobbing...' but it's not.. it's a garden bed - don't sweat it.
Onto the bottom. You're going to have to make 2 passes on this - it's no biggy. Roll out your landscape fabric, I leave an inch or so overlap on the sides so when I put it down it 'wraps up' making sure no grass can creep in at the join. You line it up the top and take your nail gun, loaded with staples and...... 
Pop in a couple at the top, pull tight, pop in a couple at the bottom, then go around every 4 inches - pull tight, shoot a staple. Top , Bottom, and Side. Repeat for the other side and the you'll find the 'loose flap' in the center pulls tight - and even if it doesn't, grass that grows through that is probably keeping good company with Kennedy's Magic Bullet during it's downtime.
Setting and Filling
Up till now we've used a handful of dollars to build a garden bed - just like a lot of posts/blogs/youtubes/books say, it's pretty cheap! But they don't tend to go on much about what can be the rather expensive part.. filling and using it. How expensive can it be? Well if you decide to go with that super-great uber nutrient Miracle Wow Potting mix that's only 10 bucks for a 3ft bag... you're in for a bit of sticker shock.See 4 x 4 = 16 square feet, and at 6 inches high, that's 8 cubic feet (coz 6 inches = half a foot), and that bag o wonder you saw for 10 bucks probably isn't measured in cubic feet, they mean a square foot measurement of some arbitrary depth.. might be 3 inches, might be a 1/4 inch sometimes they don't even say. Sometimes they have small print that tells you it's actually 0.25 of a cubic foot or just to totally screw with you, they also have it in liters (metric unit of volume). So you buy bag after bag after bag and soon you paid 200 bucks for a garden bed... probably 4 months of your veg budget.
Some books and forums will tell you the only true way will be to use Dr This Man's amazing formula of 1/3 this, 1/3 that, and 1/3 the other - and all will be good - and if you've cottoned on to who I'm talking about, I'll follow this up with 'yes, it is good - though it can also be quite pricey'.
What I do is shop around. Often during the off season when I can and get stuff on special. What brand I get usually depends on 'what's cheapest'.
2 80lb bags of cheap topsoil (1.10 a bag)
3 bags Mushroom compost (around 2.50 a bag)
3 bags of 'Black Kow' cow compost - around the same.. it's important to note that when buying cow products to get the one that says COMPOST on it - I bought 'manure and humus' or something last year and it was 'glumpy' - and practically solidified the soil I used it in. Black Kow is a good brand that's pretty fluffy and nice.
2 Bags of Miracle Gro Perlite - yeah yeah I go on about Miracle Gro all the time and how I don't use it - but when they have a sale for 2 bucks a bag, I'm there. Usually it's more pricey and I go for a cheaper brand. BTW I only used one for the bed, the other is for other projects.
4 bags of 'whatever is cheapest' potting soil. this one was 1.50 bucks a bag, and I only used 2.
Doing the math, it was around 30 bucks to fill this bed.
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| Look at that paragon of a shadow! |
Now mixing.. there's a popular method using a tarp where you pour it all in and lift corners, fold the left side in, fold it out, shake it all about.. but when you're dealing with 8 cubic feet of material you have to batch it out - and that means measuring stuff and doing a lot of work - and I'd rather do the work where it matters.. so here is my very simple way of filling and mixing.
Next we add the mushroom compost and smooth that out - it's pretty light and this will be the first layer of 'proper soil' in our bed.
With each layer added we give a gentle mix and smoothdown with back of the soil rake.
For now just level it across roughly. 1/4 inch under is fine in spots - we'll take care of that in a moment.
What About That Lattice Thingy?
Lay down our lattice and pop a nail at the top, NOT THE BOTTOM. We will need to adjust it a little for the next step.
Next line up the other ends with our marks and pop nails in all the ends - snugging the whole thing down.
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| And Voila. |
HUH? WHAT ABOUT THE SOIL? What? All the soil is in layers and I didn't mix it? No. I didn't.. but here's the deal - I'm going to turn each square as I plant it out with a garden fork - the spikes on it are only 3 inches long so I'm not going to hit the fabric unless I dig like a dervish headed for China. Each square will be turned and planted every time I use it - so the soil 'layers' will be mixed from the get go. Since we put it down in fairly even smooth layers, the soil consistency will be about the same for each square - and we didn't even need all those extra steps involved with a tarp.
At this point I'll also add a few handfuls of worm compost and if needed a handful or two of potting mix to bring each square up to level.
A FINAL NOTE: Now this is simply 'A way' - not, as others may say 'THE way' - it has worked for me and I've used it for a couple of years now with no problems. In the end, soil is a medium and an environment unto itself - this is just the starting block of building good garden soil. As it's used it will be amended, changed, and improved over time. If you have an idea of your own, TRY IT. Experiment and have fun. Just remember that fun can be on a budget - you don't have to spend a hundred dollars to make a SINGLE garden bed - you can do it in under 50 and have results just as good (if not better). There is only so much in gardening that you can throw money at, in the end knowledge and imagination trumps dollars.
Cheers, and happy planting!
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