Building Raised Beds

3. Building, filling, and planting

Each successive layer was nailed to the one below it, with 2 or 3 nails per beam. We drilled holes first to prevent the wood from splitting. Once we got to this stage, the work actually went pretty quickly. Pretty soon we had two large boxes, just waiting to be filled up. But before doing that, I used some plastic vapour barrier to line the sides with several layers of plastic, to keep the pressure-treated wood away from the soil.

The final stage was filling it up with soil. I ordered some triple mix (equal parts top soil, compost and manure), based on careful calculation of the volume of the boxes. We somehow ended up with an absolutely huge pile - either I miscalculated (which I'm sure I couldn't have, right?) or the garden center delivered more then I ordered. After filling the raised beds up to the top, and adding a bunch of soil to some other beds, we bagged a bunch of what was left over, and then invited the neighbours to help themselves to the rest! Well, at least we didn't run out halfway through the job, as I usually do.

And so now we have 2 raised beds, and as I write this they are filled with the balance of the crops I planted in them. It's early October, and I've discovered another benefit. The little bits of low-lying frost we have had so far haven't hit the plants in the raised beds, and our tomatoes are still growing strong. Only the basil I haven't picked yet is showing real damage. I think I'm going to enjoy growing in these beds for years to come.

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