In this blog post, we’ll dive into part two of our DIY raised garden bed journey. From selecting the ideal location to choosing the right soil, we’re sharing the entire process, equipping you with the knowledge and confidence needed to bring your garden dreams to life.
Whether you have a small or spacious backyard, the possibilities are endless when it comes to designing and filling your raised garden bed.
If you’re looking for how to build a raised garden bed, check out Part 1 of Our Cheap DIY Raised Garden Bed. There, you can grab a free step-by-step guide showing you how to build your own.
Prepping the raised bed for soil
Once we decided on having a raised garden bed, Travis began collecting cardboard.
It’s important to remove all tape and packaging labels. You don’t want anything contaminating your soil.
On day one of filling, we spread the cardboard across the bottom of the beds. The carboard will become the barrier between the ground and your next layer of fill.
After spreading the cardboard, we added brush from around our lot.
Don’t make the same mistake we made!
You will need to saturate the cardboard with water before adding brush and sticks.
The brush that we tossed into the base of the beds included tree limbs, sticks, and grass clippings. If we had planted in the Fall, we would have used leaves to fill the space.
Now that we established a base filler, we had to let it sit for a couple weeks. Life with children in sports and traveling out of town held rank for a bit.
After establishing it’s place on our land, the garden bed was ready for the soil.
Choosing soil for the garden beds
On day two of filling, we made a trip to our local home improvement store. Our mission? Soil; lots of soil!
We are beginner gardeners. Thankfully, there is a plethora of information shared by the amazing gardening communities on social media.
Combining a little advice from all homesteader accounts, we left with nearly 30 bags of soil. Yes, it took us two trips.
The soil combination we went with includes top soil, mushroom compost, and raised garden soil mix.
After pouring in all of the soil, we used a manual garden tiller to mix it all together.
Planting vegetables, herbs, and flowers
Again, we are beginner gardeners, and are not sure if we are doing correctly. However, our goal is to share the process with you so you can feel confident on getting started, too.
Here is a list of vegetables, herbs, and flowers we purchased to plant in the raised garden bed and the container garden beds.
- zuccini
- jalapenos
- red peppers
- yellow peppers
- green peppers
- large tomatoes
- Roma tomatoes
- cucumbers
- sweet potatoes
- lettuce
- oregano
- rosemary
- dill
- cilantro
- peppermint
- citronella
- marigolds
Before planting, we laid out the plants to assure make sure everything would fit.
Here is a look at what it all looks like now that it is planted.
Our next step is to embrace electro-gardening. We will share more about that once we get started.
Thanks for sticking around to see our first raised garden experience. We hope you, too, are inspired to grow your own food. Thus, it’s one step closer to sustainable living and freedom.
Before you go, here are posts you’ll enjoy:
The Best Gardening Books for Beginners
