Building A Raised Vegetable Garden Bed

It’s always been my dream to live on a “farm.” I’ve never so much as raised an animal or grown a morsel of my own food, but I’m fixated on the idea of the self-sufficiency of farm life. With an acre of land and not a clue what I’m doing, I’ve decided growing vegetables definitely qualifies as farming. To that end, I’m building a kitchen garden.

Kitchen gardens have a storied history. Once called that because of their location right off the kitchen, they were used for years as a practical way for families to grow the very things that would be used within kitchens for household recipes. I love that. My garden will actually be in our front yard off of our kitchen; apparently gardeners have more success the closer their gardens sit to the house.

There’s something inherently beautiful about getting our hands dirty, to work a piece of land for a tangible product. Maybe this is why I love the idea of gardening. I respect results.

I also love the prospect of doing the same thing that generations of my family have done in Florida: living off the land.

Confession: Part of the reason I want a garden is to have an excuse to take up canning. I know. Canning. But it’s just so fascinating, and people almost have to learn how to can if they have a garden.

Other confession: I also really want an excuse to wear a vintage straw hat with a little leather chin strap. The leather strap is a non-negotiable. It’s all in the details, y’all.

At this point, you’re probably pretty convinced that I’ve romanticized this whole notion of gardening. You’ll be happy to know that I do understand the idea of farming and actual farming are very different. Being that I’m kind of known for letting myself get swept up in big ideas, I decided to start small with just a single garden bed and a very few number of crops in order to ensure I could make the reality of gardening more appropriately line up with my utopian view of it.

After doing a ton of research (Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida has become my go-to source), I settled on building a raised garden bed. Florida soil is notoriously tough for growers. I was worried I’d be discouraged with an in-the-ground garden.

Down the line, once I’ve really learned the art of gardening, I’ll most likely try an actual in-the-ground kitchen garden. I love a good challenge, and Florida soil sounds like that will be right up my alley. Also, you can’t very well grow pumpkins and squash in a box, both of which are another part of my grand gardening vision.

We’re going with the square foot gardening method, which takes the guesswork out of gardening. Popularized by Mel Bartholomew back in the 1980s, the premise rests on dividing a garden into square feet, with each square foot representing a different crop. By separating into square feet, growers know exactly how many seeds/seedlings to plant in the space to avoid overcrowding. I’m all for making a new venture just a smidge easier.

Here’s a breakdown of the supplies I used to build my 3-foot-by-3-foot raised vegetable garden bed.

• 2 boards of 2x12x12 Southern Pine untreated wood. ($40)
• 2 posts of 4x4x8 Southern Pine untreated wood. ($15)
• Exterior grade wood screws with appropriate bit ($10)
• Circular saw
• Drill

We chose Southern pine for a couple reasons. First, it’s cost-efficient. I wasn’t willing to sink a ton of money into a venture that I was unsure would be successful. Second, it has some life expectancy. Pine certainly isn’t as hardy as, say, cedar, but it will certainly last long enough. For the cost, I don’t mind the possibility of having to replace the boards in a few years.

I started the building process wanting to build the garden bed by myself. Again, that whole self-sufficiency thing. I’m not all that experienced with power tools, so I did have to ask my husband to help me saw the 4x4s.

I’m going to go ahead and insert here that using the circular saw ranked up there as one of the scariest things I’ve ever attempted. The sound alone terrified me. Also, I don’t always feel like I’m completely in control of my hands on a good day, and this thing had the kind of girth that sort of demands complete control for the sake of keeping limbs intact.

Things went well though the first two-thirds of my first (and only) 4×4 cut, but I broke Rule No. 1 of sawing: Finish the cut. The minute I stopped pushing the saw forward, it pretty violently kicked back, scaring me enough to surrender all circle sawing functions to Rob. Maybe I’ll try the circular saw again on a smaller piece of wood. Or maybe I’ll just avoid it forever because it’s obviously a weapon of death.

When Rob took back over 4×4 cutting duty (RIP self-sufficiency), we settled on sawing the legs to 33 inches. Here’s the deal: Gardening does sound fun. But even in my cute vintage straw hat, squatting in the dirt or bending over for hours at a time does not sound fun. It seems 33 inches got the bed far enough off the ground to solve both those problems.

The nice gentleman at Lowe’s cut our 2x12x12 into 3-foot pieces. That significantly cut down construction time. When we got home, I set to work connecting the boards into a square using exterior-rated wood screws .

We used the remaining boards to construct the bottom of the box. We’ll go back and drill a few holes in the bottom when it’s time for planting to ensure adequate drainage.

My son even got in on the action with his little Bosch 14-piece tool set and helped his mom build the garden bed.

We decided to attach the legs to the exterior of the box. It’s probably not the “prettiest” option, but it required the fewest board cuts. And I was all about limiting circular saw time. Also, with only 9 square feet at our disposal, exterior legs won’t take usable gardening space away.

The entire project took maybe an hour and a half and would certainly go much faster for someone more experienced with tools. Built with only $60 and amateur skill, at best, I’m pretty proud of this bed. For as easy as it was, I’ll have no problem justifying taking over my entire front yard with all kinds of crops.

It will probably be a few weeks before we do our first planting. We’re still debating what to grow and how to go about it. We didn’t do any seed or soil preparation, so we’re a little late to the spring garden game. I’m still at work on our game plan.

After “conquering” power tools and constructing this bed myself, I feel ready for the challenge of gardening. I’m already envisioning eating a haul of fresh vegetables. Maybe we’ll tackle citrus and other fruits. And I’m fairly convinced growing and selling freshly cut flowers here locally is a genius idea. But perhaps my crowning achievement in all this farming business that I think I’ve just about talked Rob into letting us own chickens because no farm is complete without fresh eggs.

Perhaps we’ll turn this thing into a little money-making hobby farm when all is said and done. But first, planting. There’s value in starting small, after all.

But Azalea Cottage Farm does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?