Raised Bed Gardening From Scratch

The Satiated Blonde
11 minutes ago
4 min read

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top down view of peppers and raised bed garden

Salsa garden, anyone?! We went all-in on a raised bed gardening system from Costco. We love it, but quickly realized we already want to plant more, haha! Here are the details of the one we went with: CLASSIC 33" x 97" Keyhole Composting Garden with Fencing. When we get another one (eventually) , this will be the one!

Here are the product details from the website:

Featuring two central baskets to conveniently dispose of your daily compostable scraps, your household waste is then organically transformed into nutrient rich soil that nourishes your garden. <-- We ended up using these spots for extra planting space and it worked out well to have a support for the tomato plants!

Bordered by foldable fence panels so you can still get in while keeping unwanted animals out.

<-- It's so great to be able to reach in and just pull up the sides and we don't have to be as concerned about animals getting in.

It's crafted from durable food-grade BPA/phthalate-free vinyl that ensures healthy, safe food production and a long product lifespan. <-- We liked this as a more long-term option!

Boards slide into posts easily and conveniently, with no need for screws. It’s smart, sustainable and beautifully designed. <-- It definitely took two of us, but once we found a level spot to place the raised garden in, it went quickly! We did have to be aware of the direction we placed the slats in, but overall it was pretty simple!

We're now in our second season of using it, just about ready to plant our starters, and it held up so well over the harsh winter. Clean up was also really easy.

I didn't want to go with mainstream soil. Here's what we put in. Feedback we got from family was that we needed more soil...but we built the raised bed, put in everything we purchased (soil, peat, manure, etc..) and the seeds all in the same day, so topping it off with more soil wasn't really an option. This year, we purchased more Timberline soil options - including top soil, peat, and manure so it should end up a little higher and even easier to reach this year (once we add it in!).

An in-process view of the burlap liner we placed at the bottom to prevent weeds. This was one of the more challenging aspects of keeping it up on the sides while adding dirt next to finding a flat space, but it was well worth it and we didn't notice any weeds coming up from the bottom. Then, there's a picture without the compost bins that we used as growing cages.

Thankfully, we took this picture of the seeds we planted which was helpful when sprouts started to come up! We planted some from seeds and some starter plants. This year, we started our seeds in smaller pots before planting in the raised bed and even though we haven't planted it yet, it will still be in earlier than last year!

Here's a before:

a peek at the inside of the raised bed after we planted seeds and starters.

...and an up close after of our cherry tomatoes:

up close of our cherry tomato plant in the raised bed gardening

For tomatoes, we grew these orange cherries (they haven't turned yet in the pic), a red beefsteak and yellow heirloom. The San Marzano's didn't take, unfortunately.

We also grew lettuce, but it was so small we never harvested it. Funny enough, at the beginning of this season it popped back up and we were able to make a salad with it! Dill also came back. When we started seeing sprigs of dill, we also caught some cilantro, but it's gone now, unfortunately. Several types of hot peppers (banana, lemon drop, and others), honeydew, and I think that's all we could fit!

If you'd like to watch a video of our build process, enjoy!

https://youtu.be/YvUvc0251bw

From starters, this year we're growing beefsteak tomatoes, eucalyptus, and basil (all from a local organic farmer). From seeds, we started two different kinds of peppers (I'll let you know which kinds when I find out, lol -- I have to get better at labeling), two different kinds of squash (same story), melon (cantalope, I believe), and maybe a few other things!

Here's a final picture of some of our harvest -- I forgot we planted some potatoes (not in the raised bed, though).