From Dust to Dinner—How We Reworked an Overgrown Space of Our Yard With Raised Backyard Beds

The inspiration for my vegetable gardens got here, fairly merely, from my love of cooking and consuming contemporary, seasonal produce. For so long as I can bear in mind, I’ve fantasized about with the ability to head out into my yard and decide all of the contemporary herbs and veggies for dinner that night time. I needed armfuls of mint, contemporary heads of little gem lettuce (close to not possible to seek out at grocery shops in Austin), and spring flowers to place within the middle of the desk.

As we’ve slowly developed our yard over time, we knew that when the time got here, we needed so as to add raised backyard beds for rising greens and herbs. Lastly this previous fall, the timing was proper. Over a pair months, we researched the best way to construct our personal DIY raised backyard beds to develop the issues we like to cook dinner with. Our complete household pitched in. The children liked getting their arms soiled, and it seems that after they participated in planting, they have been extra prone to really eat the greens that got here from the harvest.

It was a journey that required clearing one other plot of land behind our home, leveling a hillside, then constructing a trio of raised wooden beds. And now that it’s carried out, it was value each drop of sweat.

Not solely can we get to benefit from the edible fruits of our labor—tending to a backyard has turned out to be an extremely nourishing strategy to incorporate extra nature into our day-to-day lives.

Learn on for the step-by-step of how we made our raised backyard beds a actuality.

The best way to Construct a DIY Raised Backyard Mattress

Provides wanted to make 3 raised backyard beds:

• White spray paint
• 12 cedar planks
• Rebar
• Battery-powered drill
• Shovel
• 16-20 baggage of soil
• Wheelbarrow
• Drip sprinklers (non-compulsory)
• Vegetable seeds/seedlings
• 1 cubic yard of pea gravel (non-compulsory)

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1. Clear and Degree the Land

On our persevering with quest to develop the yard, constructing these raised beds required us to clear and stage one other space of the house. Since our residence sits up on a excessive hillside, our basis is constructed on a 30-foot retaining wall. So, the acre of land that sits beneath the house is on fairly a slope. Over the previous couple of years, we’ve been clearing the comb, so we already had an enormous open house the place we needed to position the beds.

Nevertheless, that house wanted to be flattened, so the primary month of labor was spent bringing in filth and including one other terrace to stage out the world the place the beds can be constructed.

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2. Map Out the Placement of the Raised Backyard Beds

The following step was to map out precisely the place the beds would go. Adam used white spray paint to mark out rectangles the place every of the three vegetable beds can be positioned. We needed to go away sufficient room between every mattress for a walkway that might match a wheelbarrow, which might additionally be sure that every vegetable mattress would keep within the solar at completely different instances of day and never create shadows over one another.

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3. Construct the Frames

As soon as we knew the place the beds have been going, we may begin constructing the frames. We determined to make use of cost-effective cedar planks which are sturdy (they need to last as long as 10 years!) and are simpler to chop than a tropical hardwood like teak. We designed every of the three rectangular beds to measure 8-feet-by-4-feet. Since our cedar planks have been 8-feet lengthy, our wooden would want minimal cuts to be the proper size, making our lives simpler.

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4. Carry In Good Soil for Gardening

We crammed every of the vegetable beds with 16-20 baggage of wholesome, nutrient-rich potting soil. 

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5. Set up Sprinklers

Since we all know how sizzling the Texas solar will get between July and September, we put in drip sprinklers to make sure all of the crops would get constant water protection. Drip sprinklers are pipes that run proper below the highest of the soil and are extra eco-friendly because it deeply hydrates the roots with out a lot of the water evaporating into air. We’ve them on a timer in order that they get watered often and on the optimum time of day.

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6. Plant the Backyard

Clearly—that is the half we’ve been ready for! I did tons of studying about what’s going to thrive in Austin’s Zone 8, understanding that our local weather vacillates from extremely sizzling to occasional onerous freezes within the winter.

I made a decision to dedicate every of my raised beds to a special function:

• 1 – flowers
• 2 – herbs
• 3 – greens

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Initially, I made my plan utilizing the square-foot gardening technique and mapped out precisely the place every part would go. In fact, it didn’t become fairly so clear-cut. I ended up shopping for far more crops on the nursery than I’d deliberate (they have been all so stunning!) and I ended up freestyling a bit to make all of them match.

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For herbs, I planted parsley, dill, chives, mint, basil, cilantro, thyme, and rosemary, and so they thrived. Each week, I’d head to the yard and minimize enormous bunches of herbs that I maintain in mason jars on the kitchen counter for including to recipes.

My greens required extra of a studying curve. Since I planted the primary spherical within the fall, I planted a number of squash which ended up taking over manner extra room than I’d bargained for, and I didn’t have fairly as a lot room for lettuces as I’d hoped.

As for flowers, my zinnias lasted right through October, and I liked having contemporary flowers from the backyard on our eating desk on a regular basis.

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I discovered so a lot from the primary planting season of our raised backyard beds. And despite the fact that issues didn’t essentially go completely, I actually liked the method. I attempted to not sweat the small stuff, as an alternative throwing all my learnings into our spring backyard. (Which simply so occurs to be in progress proper now!) Observe alongside on my yard highlights to see the way it’s going.