Raised Garden Beds

Last week I decided to take on the project of creating a raised bed for my garden before the fall semester started. I have never made or worked with a raised bed, so this is an experiment of sorts.

I began by searching Craigslist. You can usually find listings for free shipping pallets wherever you are. Businesses receive goods on them all the time and then have to figure out how to get rid of them. They can be a good source of free wood for any home project. I found a listing that said wooden shipping pallets were being given away to anyone who could come get them. I cleaned out the car and drove to the location in Fairport (a twenty minute drive from my house). There was a small mix up with directions, but I was able to find free pallets. I loaded up as many as I could carry and returned home.

Once I got the pallets unloaded, I looked up instructions online. These were the instructions I followed. I spent most of my time taking the pallet apart and removing all the nails. I was able to construct four walls and attach them together to form a box using only a tape measure, skill saw, hammer and nails. My daughter helped.

Avalon really enjoyed our first project together

After I finished the box, I weeded the area it would occupy. Then I dug a small trench to set the walls into. The final step was to fill it. The finished raised bed was approximately 4x4x1ft for a total of 16 cubic feet that I needed to fill. I was able to fill most of it from our compost pile, but I did need to borrow some from a friend to top it off. This is what it looked like when I was done:

My first raised bed

The following day (Aug 29) I planted spinach, carrots, beets and parsnips. They are cool weather crops and should do well in the fall and hopefully be harvested before winter sets in.

Update: As of Sept 3, we have our first sprout, a parsnip!