Raised Garden Bed Supply: Raised Bed Kits and Parts

Your raised bed vegetable garden, or your raised garden beds for flowers and  roses, are easily created from simple materials, or helpful garden supply kits.  Followings are some ideas for getting your gardening season started right, as you put together your own raised beds.

Our main gardening area is huge, and every year, I rotate, rearrange, and tweak my approach to planting just a bit. However, with a big property, there are many other areas in which I would love to grow things, but where I don't want to use the heavy duty tiller, nor create quite the size of project as my main vegetable garden.

I had hopes of a flower bed in the front yard last year, and my family put their ideas together, along with some old, sturdy scrapwood, and created a raised bed flower planter for me in the front yard as a Mother's Day gift. Of course, the flowers weren't blooming before Mother's Day, but I did have some nice, new rosebushes as a result!

There are many materials that can be used to create your own raised beds, some requiring more work than others, of course. However, raised bed gardening can create planting areas in otherwise unplantable spaces, and are an excellent consideration for extending or creating your growing space.

We make the most of scrap materials which we find around the house, and of course, we seem to have a hefty supply of scrapwood.  If you know what you want to do, why not try your community freecycle group.  After all, the point of Freecycle is to keep things out of the landfill, and if it's truly scrap, then you may have decent luck finding the materials free.

On the other hand, if you have a certain look in mind, you can also consider new materials for your project.  If the raised beds are to be decorative, then this may be preferable.  My Mother's Day raised flower bed was made from recycled picnic bench wood, and was perfect for the project.  Your project may require something a little fancier, which will determine your direction in seeking raised bed garden supplies.

Essentially, your DIY garden bed will involve bordering an enclosed area.  You can accomplish this with sturdy wood boards, or with block, or even with paver stones and pieces.  Trace out your area for the raised bed, and take some measurements.  If you are working with wood, you will simply need to cut boards to size for your perimeter.  Dig a short footing around your perimeter, and settle the boards into place.  Drive stakes, or rebar into the ground on either side of each board, to hold in place.  Once the perimeter is formed, you can fill your center with planting soil, and proceed to plant in your garden bed. 

For block or pavers as the basis of your raised bed garden, you will need to measure your perimeter, and calculate the number of blocks it will take to form the perimeter.  You will need enough blocks to achieve the height you desire, two to three blocks tall being likely.  Because they are heavy, you can probably get by without a footing, provided you are not making a big raised planter.  Use wood stakes or rebar, driven through your stacked blocks, to lend a little extra support.  Fill your block edge with dirt, to achieve further support, and wet the dirt down, and allow it to harden. 

You could also do this with cement, especially if you have a husband or friend who knows how to lay block, but the dirt method makes the raised garden bed semi-permanent, with the option of disassembling if you so choose later on.

 Paver stones or bricks can also be used to outline a planting area, and stacked around the perimeter so as to define a specific raised garden area.  You can get fancy, or you can use the simplest and least expensive pieces.  If you are doing your raised beds on a tight budget, look into freecycle, again.  If you have the luxury of making a decorative area, check your homestore and garden departments for some creative ideas.  There are many paver bricks which lend themselves to curvy planting areas, and which can be quite attractive.

My husband is talented at using materials on hand, and has created planting areas with all of these different materials, and the defined raised areas have varied from a few inches, to a couple of feet off the ground.  We have successfully gardened in all of these sorts of raised beds.

If you want something that tells you how to put it together, there are supplies and kits with flexible walls, which can be purchased at reasonable prices, for making your raised garden beds and planters.

Some raised bed supply kits include boards, which will accomplish much of your work for you, as opposed to your needing to purchase and cut your own boards. There are sources in stores, and from online gardening companies, such as Cook's Garden.

You can also find outstanding hardware pieces which drive into the ground, and fit together, to create and easy interlocking raised planter system.  These pieces can even allow for easy creation of varied levels and tiered garden beds.  You will need to plan out your area, and purchase sufficient hardware for your project.  Additionally, you will need to purchase the boards to fit into these corner pieces, according to your design for your raised garden beds.

 One consideration that you may not think of in advance is your pets' affinity for gardens.  My dogs inevitably tear up any portion of garden that they gain access to.  That includes my raised garden beds.  Protect your work and investment, and think through a means of isolating the animals from the planter.