How to Build a Raised Vegetable Garden

During the summer, nothing tastes better than fresh vegetables, raw, cooked or even grilled.  With the price of vegetables soaring many more gardeners are turning to growing their own in raised vegetable gardens.  Raised vegetable gardens are not hard to build and you can have your own by following a few simple steps.

Choose your location - When choosing your location, you will need to ensure that your garden is getting a good amount of daily sun.  Ensure that your location is convenient to your watering source, if not you need to have a plan in place on how you will water when the summer days become hot and dry. 

Choose the shape and size of your garden - Your raised vegetable garden can be any shape you desire.  While most people envision rectangular shaped gardens, other people will build their gardens to suit their landscapes. The materials that you choose will help you to determine your choices in the shape of your garden and may even help to dictate the size. 

Choose your materials - While most gardeners will build their raised vegetable gardens from treated lumber, you can use many other types of materials such as brick or stone.  These materials will give you more flexibility with the shape of your garden.

Prepare your location - Mark off the ground in the location that you have chosen by using marking paint.  Clear all debris, leaves and grass from the location.  Dig the dirt out inside of your line to the level that is equal to half of your first row of building materials.  This means that if you are using yard timber, the timber should be able to sit down in the space and only be half visible.  Place a piece of garden cloth over your space and secure it all the way around with your building materials.  This will keep moles and other grubs from entering your garden from below.

Build your structure - Build your raised bed structure using the instructions of the building materials that you have chosen.  Build it to your desired height.  Ensure that your structure is sound and will be able to withstand being filled with dirt.  If you build a structure shorter than three feet, you may need some type of railing or netting around the top of it to deter animals; if you choose to build it higher than that these are not always necessary.

Fill your structure - Starting with a sand base of several inches depending on the depth of your box, fill the rest of your raised bed with a mixture of three parts garden soil and one part organic compost, mixed well.  Top off with two to three inches of compost.