Raised Bed Installation & Building Tips

Raised beds, also known as planter boxes, are an excellent alternative for home gardening! They’re a fun, useful, healthful, and visually appealing addition to any yard. But are you feeling overwhelmed by the procedure and the decisions that must be made? This blog will undoubtedly set you on the correct path!

We surely have some suggestions and methods for you as someone who has built numerous raised garden beds throughout the years. A raised bed is an excellent spring project. Fixtman’s article on how to build a simple raised bed from scratch will get you started. There are no particular DIY skills necessary!

What Exactly Is a Raised Garden Bed?

But let us begin at the outset with a definition. When we say “raised garden bed” or simply “raised bed,” we’re talking about a freestanding box or frame that rests aboveground in a sunny position and is filled with good-quality soil. Raised beds are often open on the bottom, allowing plant roots to reach soil nutrients below ground level.

If you’re planning on installing a raised bed, maybe these nuggets of wisdom will make the job easier.

Preparing the Growing Region

Among the vast amounts of information available to us on how to start a garden, we believe and tell clients that it all comes down to four things: 1. having enough sunlight, 2. being in a convenient location near a water source, 3. starting small but with an expansion in mind, and finally, 4. understanding what you want to get out of it. I’ll attempt to hit the high notes without going into too much detail on each of these issues.

1. Sunlight

You’ll need a spot with at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight. More is unquestionably better, while less severely limits what and/or how effectively things will flourish.

2. Water & Convenience

You may not tend to or appreciate your garden as much if it is not in a handy location. Being in garden is always calming, and keeping an eye out for pests and illnesses is essential. Furthermore, the garden must be close enough to a water supply to be irrigated on a regular basis, even if this requires purchasing a longer hose.

3. Size and quantity

Fixtman’s professionals normally advise beginning gardeners to begin with only one or two raised beds for the first couple of seasons, but to keep in mind where further beds would be placed in relation to it. This is especially crucial for people who have tiny yards or restricted space for growth.

4. Garden Return on Investment

The size, kind, and number of garden beds you need are influenced by the size of your household, your budget, and, of course, the results you desire. A 4-foot by 8-foot bed is ideal for a beginner herb or salad garden, but it will not be enough if you want to produce competition-size pumpkins.

Choosing a Location

After considering some of these things, you can probably begin to envision what your garden will look like and where you want to put it. Without attempting to insult their intelligence, we always ask our clients a seemingly little but crucial question after we’ve positioned the elevated bed frame: “Are you sure this is where you want it?” Why? Because one cubic yard of soil or compost weighs around one to one and a half tons. Once the soil is in the bed, it’s not going anywhere!

Selecting Wood Wisely

I just use wood lumber, which is one of the most popular materials available for building raised beds. Our advice here is to take your time while selecting the best hardwood boards. I’ve been known to spend almost an hour selecting the best boards on the rack. If the boards aren’t almost precisely straight, you’ll suffer for it when it comes time to screw the corners together.

Moving and Transporting Soil

Knowing a few things might make the most difficult portion of the procedure easier and less unpleasant if you have the responsibility of transporting the soil from the supplier to your home. If you’re buying a cubic yard or more of soil, you’ll almost certainly need a full-sized pickup truck. There’s a reason we stated a cubic yard of soil rather than bags of soil: buying by the cubic yard is substantially less expensive than buying by the bag.

You’ll need to hire a large pickup truck from a home center or rental company if you don’t own one or can’t borrow one. A word of caution: if you can’t book one over the phone or online, arrive at the rental location early. While you’re there, pick up a tarp large enough to cover the dirt in the truck bed, unless you don’t mind spreading some of it all over the road on the way home.

Last but not least, you’ll want an old bath or beach towel. This is for hanging over the elevated bed’s frame, not wiping the perspiration off your brow. Why? It works as a “bumper” for the raised bed’s structure, protecting it from harm caused by the wheelbarrow when you put dirt into the bed.

The Advantages of Raised Garden Beds

Raised garden beds are our favorite way to produce vegetables, flowers, and herbs! While we do have some more natural portions of the yard where items are planted directly in the ground, that approach is a little more difficult for us. We have a significant gopher problem, and our native (silt-sand) soil has poor water absorption and texture.

Raised garden beds provide you with far more control over the condition, quality, and texture of your soil. Raised beds may be filled with the perfect soil for your plants. Burrowing pests and weeds may be kept out of your plants by using hardware cloth and garden fabric. Raised garden beds are far more ergonomic than in-ground gardening for our bodies and backs. Last but not least, we adore the way they seem. Raised beds provide dimension, interest, and definition to the garden.

Final Thoughts

If you don’t already have experience with raised bed gardening, you’re going to love it! While there is a little more upfront cost than planting straight in the ground, it is totally worth it, in our humble opinion. Have you considered building your own raised bed? But don’t want to try thy DIY ideas because of ruining it? Then we ask you to contact us by calling us so that Fixtman’s team can handle the installation processes for you. Just prepare all the needed material for installing the raised bed, and we will take care of the rest for you.