Easy Gardening With Raised Beds

1. 01 Introduction: Hello and welcome to this online course. We will be going through what's involved in building a raised bed. Gardens will cover every aspect of building a demo project raised bed from equipment and supplies to use detailed step by step construction in beautiful high def video and audio all the way to placement and finishing. By the end of, of course, you'll have all the knowledge and confidence to start your own raise. Big garden. This course is designed for beginners who have little to no experience, and gardening or carpentry are raised. Bed design for the demo project is focused on minimum materials, cost and equipment. You won't need a pick up truck to haul lumber, as were deliberately using dimensions that fit into a standard size car. You won't need to break the bank on materials and equipment as we're employing basic tools on a super efficient design that uses every inch of the lumber. Cost of the materials for the demo project will be around $10 U. S. He won't need a lot of space as the design of the Rays bed allows it to fit anywhere. Our goal is to share this knowledge and encourage you to take the first step in starting a raised bed. Gardens Way founded and run Green and Humble, a landscaping firm focused on urban farms and gardens. We've been doing this for over 10 years, with awards being one for some of our projects. Way also founded and direct a local community garden, renting out our plots to the local community way strongly believe that everyone should be given access to their own growing space. Five years ago, by implementing raised beds, we converted our own property to a small scale urban farm to grow food for our family, friends and community. A raised beds did so well that despite our cold law, Canadian prairie winters were able to produce prize winning fruits and vegetables, including first place for largest rhubarb and first place for tastiest cherry tomato in this season's local harvest fair. If you're concerned about the chemicals used in the modern food supply, or if you're interested in growing and eating your own delicious organic Prodi's or if you're curious about the physical mental, an emotional benefits of gardening, and we highly encourage you to roll in this course and get started and remember, there's a 100% money back guarantee if you're not fully satisfied with course, Happy gardening 2. 02 Benefits: there are so many benefits to gardening that it's hard to try to capture them all. In this course here, just a few of them. Gardening is a great reliever of stress. Without a doubt, we live in a stressful world. Former work life, family commitments, social obligations and the constant intrusions of the digital world. Life can sometimes be very stressful. One of the best ways to disconnect from all of this, even if it's for a short period of time, is to spend time in your garden. We can't emphasize enough just what a great stress reliever gardening truly is from the simple labors of planting seeds, toe watering, toe harvesting. Gardening is a great way to spend time outdoors in the fresh air, in physical activity and mindfully engaging in the natural world around us. Unless you've had the pleasure of picking fresh fruit and vegetables off the plant and eating it directly, you don't know what you're missing out on. It's actually quite shocking. How much better produce picked fresh from the garden, taste versus stuff that's been picked unripe, packed in cold storage and shipped from who knows where with your own garden you can grow your own pure on Sprague produce. The food supply is full of unknown and potentially harmful chemicals like pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and various antigrowth agents. Growing your own produce allows you to be confident in what you and your family. Every garden is a microcosm of life in the natural world. Garden's create habitats and nourishment for organisms that are an essential part of a healthy and sustainable ecosystem. You'll be surprised at how much life you'll find in your garden by obtaining your food from your own garden. You're easily and naturally reducing your carbon footprint. You're no longer needing to ship all your food from all corners of the world. With all the burning of fossil fuels that entails. Kids and gardens naturally go together. We've never met a child who doesn't love exploring and spending time in one. There's so much to learn and discover in the garden that any child would benefit greatly from this great activity, from absorbing important life lessons to simply having fun. Kids and gardens are a perfect match. The way one of the great advantages of raised beds is that the soil often warms up a little quicker in frigid climates. Because of this, you can often get start planting that much sooner, Res says, are off the ground so you don't have to bend as far down as you tend to your garden. This makes it easier on your back and can be a very significant benefit for those with issues of reduced mobility. A raised bed can act as a physical barrier to some pest than weeks. We found that pests like slugs and snails have a harder time climbing up our raised beds because I raised that is, in essence, a big empty container. You're able to fill it with whatever soil you want. This is an important consideration for plants with unique growing requirements. For example, if you're going blueberries, then you can feel the raised bed with soil that is more sitting because you're feeling your raised bed with soil. Initially, the soil tends to be looser. It hasn't been compacted down with foot traffic or other pressures. Raised bed gardens are often easier to plant intensively because you're able to access the soil from multiple sites. It's also easier to measure out into square feet if you want to try your hand at square foot gardening. Additional structures can be secured to a raised bed in a straightforward manner. Trellises and hooped frames require a supporting base, which a raised bed can function US. 3. 03 Equipment: When building raised beds, you'll need work plus earplugs. Safety goggles. You'll also need things like a tape measure and a level now raised beds can be built entirely with hand tools, in which case you'll need a hammer and galvanized nails, in this case to in a port ridge. Otherwise, you can use power tools like an impact driver. Drill with the appropriate Drillbit to match two and 1/4 inch galvanized deck screws. You'll also need a pen from markup and a saw for cutting wood or, in the case of power, tools of circular miter or cable saw. 4. 04 Supplies: They're different materials that could be used to build a raise bed like stone and metal. But we find that would is one of the easiest, most versatile and least expensive options. There are many different would options available? Seat. It is a great material to use. Some of the advantages to using cedar are it's attractive color. It has anti rock properties and a lovely initial smell. The initial reddish color will fade over time to a silvery grey if left untreated, and the smell will fade away after about a year outdoors. Some of the disadvantages to using cedar are that it's very expensive, probably around 2 to 3 times the cost of other woods. Pressure treated lumber is another option that could be used, but we do not recommend it. It has been chemically treated under pressure to resist pests and rot. Those chemicals can leach into the soil and should not be used for growing edibles. It's less expensive in cedar, but more expensive than untreated woods. Finally, most hardware stores and lumberyards Selanne treated softwood lumbers like spruce or fir. It's a readily available material, comes in the most diverse range of dimensions and is the least expensive option for our demo project will be using untreated spruce we'll need exactly to eight foot two by fours and 46 foot fence boards, all of which should fit in a standard size car. 5. 05 Measure and Cut: with a tape measure and straight edge, you'll want to mark your lumber. Let's take a look at the different cuts you'll need to make. The 1st 2 by four should be reserved for later. It will comprise the end cap for the Rays bed. The 2nd 2 by four should be cut into 41 foot long sections. These will comprise the lakes of the race bed. The fence boards should all have a single cut. These will comprise the walls of the rays. Bed is often helpful to mark all your cuts at once, so that you're cutting can proceed uninterrupted. If you have access to an experience with power tools, it can often be a convenient time saver. Otherwise, you can use a handsaw to make your cuts. After you've made all your cuts, you'll be ready to start putting things together. 6. 06 Building Base: After cutting one of the fence boards, you'll have a two foot panel and a four foot panel. These panels will become the walls of the race bed. The two foot panel should be placed on the inside rather than the outside of the bed face. You can see how the foot long sections you cut earlier become the lakes for the race bed. The's foot long sections also act as a brace. To secure the panels with the width of the two foot panel, mark a line, then secure leg to the four foot panel with two deck screws. Then attach a two foot panel into the side of the leg with two deck screws. As you can see, you now have a corner completed. Now repeat with the other corners again, making sure to place the two foot panel on the inside of the bed. Face raised beds. Concern only be built with hammers and nails. Well, we prefer screws as their slightly more secure and can be unscrewed easily in case of mistakes. Once you've secured all the legs, you'll have a solid platform on which to add additional panels, thereby increasing the height of the race bed. So if you wanted to have a raised bed that was two feet tall, you would want to use at least two foot tall legs and secure additional levels of panel. Or, if you wanted Teoh, have a 10 foot long raise bed. You would want to use panels that were 10 feet long. This design is meant to be versatile and can be scaled to any size of raise. Bed Sky's the limit. 7. 07 Building Levels: Now that you formed the first level of the Rays bed, it's time to add the second level. Make sure that you match up the second panel to the first panel so that it sits flush. Something to note is that fence boards naturally, Bo. You'll want to ensure that the curvature is facing outwards. This will allow the panel to flatten when you screw it into the Rays bed leg. Simply rest. The panel on top of the other panel, while not necessary, is more aesthetically pleasing to line up the screws in a straight line and screw it to the Rays Bed Lake with two deck screws to finish up simply a fixed the other panels to the legs , making sure tow line them up properly. So sharp of eye will notice that even though the fence boards are six inches wide and thus two of them together should equal a foot that the combined with is less than a foot long leg. This is because lumber is often rounded up and is often half uninterested, oh, shorter than the state of dimension. Once you secured the last panel, flip it over so that the bed is now resting on its legs. You'll now have a fully functioning, completed raise bed. It's really that simple, however, Please continue watching the additional clips where we'll show you what you can do to cap it off and add some other enhancements. 8. 08 Capping: Now that you have your raised bed, it's time to cap it off. Let's review that cuts he made earlier. You cut the fence boards to form the walls of the rays bed. You also cut foot long legs out of the two by fours. This after four foot section, which will now be used to cap one of the length of the rays bed. Place it down and make sure it sits flush to the exterior of the rays bed. Now take the eight foot long, two by fours. Measure 04 feet and make a cut. This four foot section will form a cap for the other length of the rays bed. Please sit down as well. Then measure the width between the two caps that you put down. Do the same to the other side. Now cut the remaining cap sections based on the measurements you just made. These were formed the caps for the wits of the rays. Bed this one. Now leave a small section of wood leftover simply eyeball and cut this leftover bid in half . This will form a brace for the whitecaps, which is necessary since they don't sit on the legs the way the length caps do. Taking the brace you made from the leftover wood, place it on the inside of the rays. Bed flesh to the top panel one on each side. Now secure all the caps with deck screws, making sure the screws are aligned so that they fastened into the braces legs on the walls of the race bed. While the cap is not necessary, it's a nice way to use up that four foot length that was left over from cutting the legs with four fence boards and 22 by fours, you're able to create a functional, durable and beautiful raise. Bed was zero waste costing around $10 US, so you can see that starting a raised bed garden needn't be expensive or difficulty, and that it is entirely possible for anybody to do regardless of experience or background. 9. 09 Enhancements: as a stylistic enhancement to the race bed, you can clap the corners. This will require purchasing and cutting fence boards and attaching them vertically. As you can see, there are two orientations for the cladding. Select one and be consistent with the other corners. You'll need to a fix. Each cladding peace with four screws, one in each corner. When attaching the perpendicular cladding, make sure that it sits flush with the other piece. With the cladding in place, you'll notice that it sticks out beyond the edge of the capping. For aesthetics, you can measure and cut new length of capping and secure them so that they overhang the cladding. If you leave the bed untreated in a sunny spot, it can develop a nice gray patina over time. Another enhancement you can make is to use a 45 degree miter cut for the corners of the caps instead of the straight perpendicular cuts that were used for this project. You can even use a wider cap, which conserve as bench seating, perfect for when you need to have a seat when you're tending to your garden. Lastly, to enhance the beauty and durability of the raised beds, you constrain the outside of the rays beds with a nice outdoor wood stain 10. 10 Placement and Soil: Once you selected an appropriate spot for your raised bed, it's time to set it in place. The point underneath each lake should be adjusted to ensure that the race bed is level. In this case, this involves removing gravel to create a depression for the back legs. It also means raising up the front legs with extra gravel. Once you're satisfied with his level nous, you can add a week barrier like cardboard to kill any weeds. When you're ready, it's time to fill the raised bed with soil. Going to your local garden centre or landscape supply yard is a good place to start. You want to look for something that would be good for growing vegetables in Usually. This involves a mix of different things blended in with the topsoil. As an example, a good generic garden mix might have composted manure as a fertilizer. Wood mulch for looseness and sound for drainage. That's one of the great advantages of having a raised bed. You can control the type of soil you'll be using and tailor it toe what's best for what you're growing. Once you have your soil, just Philip, your raised bed and voila! Instant garden 11. 11 Planting: while the garden can be started with seedlings and transplants from a nursery, especially in cold climates with a short growing season, nothing is more cost effective than starting from seed. For a few dollars, you can get a packet with many seats inside important information like the variety of seed , and suggested growing instructions can often be found printed on the back of the pack it. In the case of these carrot seeds, the suggested growing instructions indicates spacing between seats in a row and spacing between rows. It's important to realize that the suggested growing instructions should be viewed as guidance, as opposed to rules that you should follow. In other words, every situation is different, and you should feel free to do what's best for your particular situation. For example, we found that we were able to obtain greater carrot yields by not planting an evenly spaced rows as suggested on the packet. We actually prefer to scatter sees in uneven manner so that there is no unused based in our garden area. While this may require more seeds, as you can see, a single packet of carrot sees contains a lot. In addition, the small size of carrot seeds makes planting in evenly space rose a bit more time consuming than scattering. This way in this module will be going over what this might look like. One of the great advantages to raise bed gardening is that the soil thaws and warms up faster than the ground. As a result, the gardening season can often start a bit sooner for those itching to get the garden season started. Once you're confident that the last chance of frost has passed in your area and the soil is workable, it's time to get started. Using a soil thermometer can sometimes be helpful, as some seeds won't Germany. When the soil is too cold or hot, we find that a good compost or composted manure added to the top of a bed and mixed into the soil is often all the fertilizer a raised bed needs for the season. For small sees, we really don't need to dig any holes or trenches. Simply Sprinkle your seeds over the surface from a height of a foot or two. When that is done, simply rake over the area to evenly distribute the seeds and cover with soil. Finally, if the sees a good soak and you're done planting 12. 12 Watering: There are many different ways you can go, but watering your raised bed garden, one of the simplest and most effective ways is to use a watering can, one that has a handle on top and a side in addition to a long spoke will make watering less strenuous. Another method is to use an oia, which is an ancient method of irrigation. It is extremely effective and efficient. How it works is that you bury an unglazed terracotta vessel up to its neck in the soil. Then you feel the vessel with water, which will slowly seep through the porous clay into the surrounding soil and roots. In this way, Middleton, no water is lost to evaporation or runoff, which makes it an efficient method in arid or drop conditions. Also, the roots are able to draw in water directly from the oia as needed instead of water in each plant individually, you can just fill up the oyo when it runs low, and it will slowly disperse water to the surrounding plants, so it allows you to use less water and water less frequently, moving to the opposite end of the technology spectrum. Another method of irrigation is to use an automated timer. They often have one end that it fixes to a water source, such as a spigot, and they have another end you can affix to AH holds to distribute the water. In this case, this timer has two ends to a fixed to two hoses so you can actually set up to separate and independent watering zones. These devices are programmable, allowing you to control variables like start time, duration and frequency. A soaker hose has one end that is capped off and another end that threads onto a water source, such as a spigot the entire length of the hoses. Lined with many, many tiny holes. These holes allow water to slowly seep out, which results in less evaporation and runoff. Unwatering with a regular host, in this case by pairing an automated timer to soaker hoses, were able to set up a very efficient and handsfree watering system. Let's have a look at how this might work together for this example way. Have a raised bed within a greenhouse. This race bed has a hose that has been staked up the inside of the race bed through a conduit. We're going to attach the automated timer to this source hose. Then we're going to attach a soaker host to one of the timer ends. Next, we'll snake the soaker hose in amongst the plants and seedlings that we want to deliver the water to. We can keep the hose in place by using these metal U shaped landscape pins. Once you're done laying out your soaker hose, you're ready to go. Just turn on the water and the automatic timer will open its valve at the program. Time to allow the water to flow through the soaker hose, and we along its entire length. 13. 13 Conclusion: congratulations for completing the course. We'd like to thank you personally for taking the time, and we hope that you've gained something from this experience. There's so many benefits to be gained from gardening, in addition to the deep satisfaction that comes from growing and harvesting your own fruits and vegetables, while the world may be a complicated place, Ah, garden is not some basic building supplies and tools, but soil sees. Sunshine and water are all you really need to get going. It really is that simple. With the information from this course, you should be able to create raised beds in an endless combination of materials, dimensions and finishes. If you're interested in having your own garden but haven't started yet, we hope that this course has inspired you to take that first step. We want to encourage you to get out there and get started. We're here to answer any questions you might have and help wherever we can. Please do not hesitate to contact us. Happy gardening