Building a Garden Box

Okay, so you’ve decided to start a vegetable garden, however you are clueless as to where to start. The first thing you should do is find a sunny location, and the second is to decide whether to plant directly into the ground, or build a frame and fill it with soil. If you have opted for the framed version, keep reading. If not, keep reading anyway, you might learn something.

One thing I should note before we get any further is that where the sun hits during the winter is different than during the summer, and a good vegetable garden requires at least six hours of sunlight to grow you some delicious fruits and veggies. Looking at your yard now, you can get an idea of where the best location for a kitchen garden should go. Ideally it would be as close to the kitchen as possible, allowing for herb cutting and vegetable picking while you are preparing dinner, but a good sunny area will provide you with a greater harvest. In warmer parts of the country, afternoon shade is more beneficial than sun to a large variety of plants, so keep that in mind too.

Now that you have your location scouted out, you have options. If you have good soil to begin with, which means that you had it brought in because our soil in the northwest is mostly clay and won’t grow much of anything in the fruit and vegetable world, I’d suggest you build a mound, hoeing the soil well to aerate it as you go. If you don’t, or want to start with a good garden soil base, either purchase bags of soil, or buy it by the yard, either hauling it yourself in a pickup or trailer, or having it delivered. If you need 3 or more cubic yards, do yourself a favor and have it delivered.

Let us now focus on the garden box itself. You will want to choose an untreated wood for your boxes, as any chemicals in the wood will leach into the surrounding soil, in turn entering the food, which will then enter your body upon consumption. And that is just gross. Cedar is an excellent option, but pricier, and will weather nicely. Or, you could do what we did, and buy just regular 2x12s, 8 feet in length, and figure you will end up replacing them in about five years. You can always paint them too, which looks good in a vibrant garden, but I like the look of naturally wearing wood, and it fits our space and surroundings. If you have a Tuscan garden, bright yellows and greens would be a welcome paint color, and if you have an English garden, simple white boxes would work nicely.

When we planned our garden space, we went half and half with a friend who wanted a space to garden with her nieces. This is not only a great way to cut down on costs, but also means you can grow a greater variety of items if you agree to share or trade fruits with each other. The three of us each had our own boxes, her nieces shared one box, and we all grew our herbs in pots surrounding the space. Wanting to start off small, we figured that 4x4 foot raised beds would be a good starting point. I suggest starting small to begin with if you don’t have experience growing your own fruits and vegetables, and gradually build up each year, or as you find the time. You’d be surprise just how much you can grow in a small box.

Knowing that we wanted four boxes, and knowing that we didn’t want any stray grass from coming up through the boxes, we put down a lot of landscape fabric in a 20x20 foot space first, letting the heat and lack of sunlight kill the grass beneath it. Then we built our boxes. With 4x4 foot boxes, we simply had eight 8 foot long 2x12s cut in half at the store and took home the pieces in the trunk of our Hyundai Elantra, and bought some two inch screws to assemble them when we got home. Our friend PJaye and I took the wood out of the trunk, stacked it in the yard, and started screwing the pieces together into squares. For extra stability, we alternated each piece so the side was screwed into the front at all four corners. I made a picture to show you, because it is a little difficult to explain.

Other ways you could do this to provide more stability, especially for any box larger than a four foot square, is to use 4x4s cut to fit, screwed into the inside corners and every four feet along the length. And if you decide to make your boxes taller, like say 24” high, use this technique for any size box. Four feet wide makes it so you are able to reach into the box without having to get into it, however with this type of box, you can make it as long as you want. Personally I find the four foot squares easy to manage and keeps the garden nice and organized, however, this year I plan on building a 4x8 foot box behind the vegetable garden where we have previously planted the three sisters (corn, beans and squash) for strawberries.

Once the boxes are assembled and placed where you want them to go, it is time to start filling them with soil. If you built a mound, simply put the box around it and spread the soil, leveling it off. Otherwise, haul the soil and fill the boxes at least half way, but no more than three-quarters full. You don’t want all that beautiful garden soil to wash over the edges while watering!

Boxes are done and filled with soil, and now it is time to plant. Yeah! I already suggested starting small, but also only plant what you will actually eat. Just because a certain variety of exotic chili pepper looks neat, will you actually use it? If the answer is no, don’t plant it. Your vegetable garden is valuable space that you have spent time and money preparing, so think about what you buy regularly during the spring and summer, and if your climate allows, plant some of those. Seed packets usually contain a lot of seeds, and if kept in a cool dry place, will last a couple seasons, however, sometimes it is actually cheaper to buy individual plant starts if you only need one or two. And remember, if you find you are quickly outgrowing your box, simply build another, as our mild climate has a large variety of fruits and vegetables that can be planted and harvested all year round.