Micah's Garden {Raised Garden Bed D.I.Y.}

  It's starting to warm up a little bit here in Tennessee, we've even had several days in the upper 60's, and with that warmth comes thoughts of the spring garden.

  This will be our first year to have a real garden and I am super excited. I have been wanting to plant a garden for years and now we can... and I have zero idea what I'm doing.

  When I was a kid, my Mom had a small garden with lettuce and a couple of tomato plants in it and I had an old whiskey barrel that she let me plant beans in, so my gardening knowledge is very limited to say the least, but I have faith that it is not brain surgery, but simple science, and I will do fine.

  Due to the rules of my Homeowner's Association and drainage issues we've had, I chose to plant in raised beds.

  I had a hard time finding something I liked, that was in my price range and also the right size, so I decided to build my own.

  I found several plans online and tweaked them to meet my needs. I decided to build a bed that was 18 in high, 2 ft wide and 4 ft long. It would fit the space beside my back patio and would be just the right size for me to tend to easily... it would be perfect!
  I checked different prices online and found Lowe's to have the best prices on what I'd need.

For this project, I used.....

• 6 1x6x6 Cedar dog eared fence pickets {2.50 a piece}

• 1 Untreated Pine 2x4x6 {$7} 
  
• 1 box of standard 2in framing nails {$5}
  Total cost= $27.
  The soil was $1.30 a bag {1 cu ft} and I calculated I'd need 10 cu ft of soil to fill the planter to about 3 in below the top, by using this cool soil area calculator.     

  I had the fence pickets cut into 6, 4ft pieces for the sides and used the 2ft leftover for the ends and the 2x4 was cut into 4, 18 inch pieces, to brace the corners.

  Attach the end pieces to the 2x4 with nails, attach the other 2x4 piece to the other end of the board and continue with the same process, until all 3 boards are securely attached.

Finished end piece

  Finish the other end in the same fashion. You now have 2 separate pieces that look like the one above.  Take one of the 4ft side pieces and attach it flush to the bottom of the end with nails. Place it on the ground and check that it is level, then attach the other end piece to the bottom of the side.

  Ok, admittedly, I am not too good at explaining how to build this project, but if you look at the pics, it's pretty self explanatory. Basically, it's a box, with no bottom.

  This was a super easy and fun afternoon project. If you can hammer a nail into a piece of wood, you can build this garden box. It only took about 30-45 minutes, start to finish. (At least it would have, had I not had so much "help")