Build Lasting Eco-Friendly Raised Garden Beds

I had ordered 10 yards of a loam and compost mixture to level some of the lawn edges. We have an Husqvarna Robot mower (we call Mohawk) that got stuck occasionaly trying to back out from the edged slope. Hence I leveled the slope and now Mohawk is happy again.

When done I had more than 5 yard of loam leftover and since I did not want it to sit on my driveway all winter, I build a bunch of raised garden beds. For the garden beds, I bought 8-feet 2 by 8' for the bottom part and 8-feet 2 by 3's for the rim of the bed.

I made 6 beds of 8 feet long and 3 feet wide. I had originally planned to make them 8 by 4 feet, but that would not fit in our enclosed vegetable garden. For each bed I cut 2 pieces of 2x8 to exact 8 feet, as they are all slightly longer. Then I cut two 3 feet long pieces and 1 slightly shorter piece to fit in the middle. For each bed I used 3.5 2x8 beams, 21 pieces in total for the 6 beds.

To make it look nicer I added a rim on top by cutting the 2x3's to length. For a finished look I butted them at a 45 degree angle which meant I had to do a lot 45 degree cuts. It was worth it as the beds came out really nice.

I did not want to use pressure treated wood in the garden to avoid any chemicals leaching into the beds. Instead I used a natural sealant to extend the life of the pine wood. We treated the wood with eco-friendly non-toxic wood treatment from Valhalco. A nice side effect was that it gave the wood a nice grayish aged look.

After installing and leveling the beds in the vegetable garden, I filled them with the leftover loam, and covered it with some straw. I look forward to next spring to seed and plant our veggies.

The nice thing about raised beds is that you now have a nice platform for extensions. First of all you can mark lines to help with accurate seeding. I also plan to make some plastic covers, so I can start the season earlier in our ever-lasting New England winter. It will also be easy to install trellis and netting by attaching support to the beds. I hope to post an update about these extensions in the spring.