Our Backyard Raised Bed Planter (a Photo Essay)

So earlier this year, I built a raised bed planter for my wife. She found a good plan on YouTube which I basically followed except on a few points. Number one, I didn't have all the power tools he has, so I had the good people at Home Depot cut the wood for me. I didn't have the clamps and router, etc., so I improvised in constructing it. 

For the legs, I found the 4x4 Douglas fir post but since it comes in an 8-foot length, I simply cut it into four equal sections. That made it a little shorter than the plans, but I avoided having to purchase a second 4x4 and having so much leftover wood. 

You can see the video that I sort of followed at https://youtu.be/DMORpDWq-q8.

 

For the sides, I had difficulty finding cedar. I even looked for cedar fencing to try to make that work, but could not find anything I could use. I settled on poplar, which does not have the rot-resistance of cedar, but it was available and relatively inexpensive. 

 

The other change I made is with the bottom. I used hardware cloth, as the plan calls for, and you see pictured landscaping weed-block cloth over that.

 

In the end, however, decided to use nylon screening (not pictured) instead to ensure good drainage. 

And the seedlings begin to grow...

                            ...and bloom...

...until now we are harvesting some produce.

The radishes and zucchini were grown in the raised bed planter, The green beans in a wine barrel planter, and the peppers were grown in a flower pot.

So I sliced up some green and yellow zucchini, chopped a little freshly harvested bell pepper, created a pizza sauce with tomato paste, onions, and Italian seasoning, and rolled out some pizza dough for an artisan flatbread dinner. 

And that is how we got our produce from the garden to the table. 

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