We have become more and more involved with gardening since moving into our new house a few years ago. I find it so relaxing to be able to potter outside when I get home from work and on the weekend. There are so many jobs that need doing and I spend alot of time with my OH talking about what we can do to make our ideas come to life. Like most people we have to remember to balance what we want with the reality that our garden has to be right for the whole family. Back when we moved in our first project was the spring garden make over where some of the things we considered were how we could make the garden ‘boy friendly’ as our boys love playing football.
This year we have looked at having a raised bed at the far end of the garden to make use of a little patch that has been all but forgotten. It’s a bit shady and was just a great big mound of earth that really looked a bit soft and not good for anything.
For ages we said that we should do something with it and last year I scattered a few beetroot seeds over it just as a passing thought. Nothing came of them really as it gets trodden on when the bikes are bought out of the shed and once again its left looking a bit sorry for itself.
So this year it was time to do something about it and make it work for us. We decided on a raised bed, we are not full on DIY people but as you can see from our pallet garden, my OH can construct a thing or two and that recycled garden area has been a great success using free pallets and a little bit of brain power. It lasts really well too.
So back to the raised bed at hand. We decided on a structure we could put together easily without cutting and drilling, one of the reasons being because we don’t have the tools to hand. We are big fans of recycling so it was a step away from using what we had around to buying in the metal and using the fast track choice. This will mean that we will be making use of it for a long time or if we do change the use of it then we will ourselves recycle the materials. There are lots of different stores which sell these and we chose one that was having a closing down sale so picked it up for a bargain price.
For this 5 Easy Steps to Making a Raised Bed I’ve used pictures to show how my two happy helpers got stuck in …and how quick it was to create.
Step 1
Here’s the patch of earth I was talking about before, pretty basic eh? We gave it a rough measuring out beforehand. My son and OH then created a flat area and gave it a good weeding.
Step 2
Like any good construction project my chaps had a good long look at all the bits they were going to assemble! Oh and by now it started to rain!
Step 3
Structure up and slotted together perfectly, no banging on the fingers, hopping on one foot after dropping a hammer, nada!
Step 4
At this point I think I did help with the carrying up to the end of the garden, or at least shouting encouraging words, I can’t quite remember. The bed fitted in perfectly.
Step 5
Numerous trips then followed to bring the soil and compost up there to fill it up. We roughed up the base soil which it was sitting on first so that it would feed in the nutrients from the rich soil we were putting on above.
We were now ready to go! I have been reading and thinking about what I want to try growing in this area and it will be mainly root vegetables but for the first year I will have a little experiment with a few different types. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. For now this is a brilliant raised bed completed in just one afternoon.
What projects have you been carrying out in your garden?
What do you think to the idea of a raised bed?
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we have one of these, it is great, my daughter has also made a fairy garden in it. #mainylovessummer
Love this!! We currently have two, but I want a few more so this is great! x
You’ve gotten into aswell, they are so handy
Ah it looks fab. I didn’t realise you could buy prefabs like this. We have been prettying up our garden ready for sale. Excited about the prospects the next garden holds, although I know we will be restricted to pots.
#mainylovessummer
This is a great way to point out to the children that it is an area to be nurtured and not trampled on! As the mother of two sons I know the football situation well! #mainylovessummer
Oh yeas, they do love their football!:)
Oh my goodness! Well done. That looks really great guys and pretty simple too. #mainylovessummer
Thanks it was such a good thing to do:)
I love working on our garden too. We went to the Eden Project last week and came home with so many ideas that will build on the work that we’ve done so far. I can’t wait to get started!
This looks really effective, very impressed they didn’t bang fingers and hurt toes! We managed to create rockeries out of a difficult bit in our garden last year and this Summer they look brilliant as everything has grown and started to cover. Luke and his friend had lots of fun moving rocks about and piling in stones. #mainylovessummer
Bookmarking you, and getting the necessary materials to make this happen! xoxo #mainylovessummer @myrealfairy
I love the idea of gardening and growing my own vegetables – I don’t have a garden, though. You made this raised bed look very easy to make and it’s a great idea for the unused space you had. Happy growing! #mainylovessummer
I’ve been wanting to do one of these for ages! This has spurred me on.
Thanks for sharing!
#mainylovessummer
I like how they sell raised garden kits – makes it so much easier! My problem is that mine just isn’t tall enough because I made it from railroad ties. Thanks for sharing with us at The Blogger’s Pit Stop! Roseann from This Autoimmune Life
You made it sound easy but I bet it wasn’t. I think I could manage a little vege patch of that size. All the best with the growing.
visiting via the BloggersPitStop linkup
I had a little help:) thanks for stopping by
Lots of food for thought here! I’m redoing my garden at the moment but thought concrete would be he best option! #kcacols
What a great project, though our raised bed would have to be quite raised to stop the dog getting in and digging! #kcacols
Oh I wish we had a bigger garden. Great project for the whole family to spend time together. Thank you for linking up to #PointShoot 📸
This is awesome. Your easy steps to making a raised bed article healful for me. Because I want to build a raised bed in my garden. Thank you very much for the sharing a helpful also informative article.
Oh I’m so pleased that you’ve found it useful and thanks for the feedback. Good luck with yours and feel free to pop back and let me know how you get on. Mainy
My mum has a few of these but I wasn’t sure how she put them together. This is perfect. #kcacols
Oh this looks amazing. We’ve been growing this year, but our new house came with a couple of (very overgrown) raised beds. I’ve been thinking of putting another one in for next year, but had no idea you could do it like this. Thanks! #KCACOLS
This is great! Will bookmark this for future. #KCACOLS
Pinned! Thank you for sharing this!
#kcacols
You did a nice job on this project! Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time
This is so helpful for me as a wheelchair user, thank you #kacols@_karendennis