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Build Your Own Garden

A how-to guide from GRuB's Kitchen Garden Project ...continued

  1. Intro -- The Things You'll Need
  2. Building the Frames
  3. Filling the Beds
  4. Building the Trellis
  5. Finishing Up

Printable version of the entire article

Building the Frames

Photo of KGP builders arranging the frame on the ground.
Find a flat, level surface that you can lay the boards on as you nail them together to make the frames for the garden beds. Sometimes this type of surface isn't always at hand, so you can use whatever you might have lying around to prop up the boards so they are level with each other. You could use a spare piece of wood, a rock, a glove, or even a friend to hold it in place.
Photo of KGP builders nailing the frames together.
Nail the boards together. Nail them so that the corners alternate. For example, start by nailing the shorter board onto the end of the long one, so that the end of the long board is covered by the shorter board. The other end of the short board should be covered by the end of the long board. When the bed is complete, each of the four boards should have one end exposed and the other end covered by the board that is nailed perpendicular to it. It's best to put at least three nails into each corner. Complete this step until all your beds are built.
Photo of KGP builders placing the bed frames in the garden.
Get a friend to help you place the frames of the beds in the spots you want them. Make sure that they are in a spot in your yard that gets a lot of sunlight. You'll probably want to place them about 2 ft. apart from each other, leaving enough room so that you can comfortably fit between them as you tend to your plants, and also enough room so that a lawnmower or weed-whacker can fit through. Some folks (particularly older folks) prefer to have their garden beds stacked on top of each other, two, or sometimes even three beds tall. This makes the surface of the soil higher off the ground so that folks don't have to bend down so far to tend to their garden, also making it accessible to wheelchairs and people who want to sit down as they tend their garden.
STEP 3: FILLING THE BEDS -->