Easy diy raised vegetable garden

During all of this quarantine, we have tried to do so many projects. I mention the word “tried.” We have gotten a lot accomplished around the house and I’m eager to show you all of them once we get finished.

One of those was a garden planter box. I wanted to just have a few tomatoes, peppers, and squash plants. Rather than tilling up a place in the yard, we decided to build some planter boxes up close to the house and the water hydrant.

You will need a few supplies to get started. Like with everything, there are hundreds of ways to do this, but we literally did this within a couple of hours from start to finish.

Supplies for this project

pressure treated lumber in the size you are needing
4 posts for the ends of the planter boxes (1 box)
outdoor screws
7-8 bags garden soil or potting mix (depending on size of your box)
cardboard
plants or seeds

He grabbed some pressure treated fence boards for the sides and had few posts here at home. We measured about 3′ wide, 6′ in length, and 2′ deep.

Start by cutting the fence pieces straight so they are not angled at the top and to the length of the base. He grabbed enough to cut the ends in half to the width we needed.

Next step was to get the desired height to hammer the posts into the ground deep enough to make stable. Leave room to be able to screw the fence to the sides and the ends. Make sure that the posts are level and straight to make your box square.

Once the posts are in the ground, you can start attaching your sides and ends. It will be good to start at the bottom and go up working your way around the perimeter.

I didn’t grab any pics of the box once we got it assembled….we were too eager to get the dirt in. Once you have it assembled, we added in layer of cardboard to keep the weeds from coming up through the bottom. You could add some black plastic to the bottom, but during quarantine you use what you have on hand.

This is what it looked like once we had the garden soil and potting mix in the raised beds. You will need at least 2 of the fence panels stacked on top of each other to get the depth you need. Don’t skimp on the potting soil, you want to have plenty for the roots to grow in. The next year you will just have to mix some fresh soil in the top.

For this project we ended up making two boxes, side by side. We put down cardboard in the bottom to prevent grass and weeds coming through.

We used 5 bags of garden soil and I also had 2 bags of moisture control potting mix that I had we also used. It was what I had on hand and during a lock down you use what you have. I did mix the two together with a shovel really well and the kids didn’t mind this part.

Now is the fun part of planting everything. For the tomatoes we probably need more space to spread them out….but we just worked with what I had bought. We did fix a netting we had so that I can tie them up later as they grow. This is one of those projects where you use what you have on hand. Aren’t those usually the best ones?

I had the kids hill up two mounds of dirt on each side for a few cantaloupe seeds and squash. They honestly do not take long to come up at all. The kids have really enjoyed seeing them grow each day. They also have some stakes and netting to run the vines. I purposely planted them on the side by the landscaping because they will get too big for the planter box.

This is how big the seeds are after just coming up.