DIY Self Watering Raised Garden Bed

hey guys alex here from mr build it and yes i finally did it a lot of you've been dming me asking me to make a video on a build that is simple and has limited amount of tools and ta-da there she is raised garbett that looks awesome and has its own built-in low pressure watering system so i don't have to stand here and start watering everything so that wasting time let me show how i did this and you can do it yourself and let's get into the video let's go [Music] all right guys so a few of you have made some suggestions that the next bill that should do it should be garden boxes it's a perfect time of the year it's summer well i don't know enough gardening so i would imagine spring with the perfect i don't any who we're going to build some garden boxes specifically raised garden boxes and you know nuts we we don't do anything basic so we're going to make sure it's nice and fancy i have a general idea of how i want to build them i have the idea in my head i don't usually plan anything on paper and i don't know i don't have the time i'm impatient that way but i do know for sure i wanted to have cedar because it's pretty good when it comes to weathering i wanted to have metal just it's gonna look cool that's all i know and the rest is in my head so let's go get some wood let's go so i don't really have a green thumb when it comes to gardening i'm kind of learning on the fly from some of the research that i've been doing they're suggesting a few things to kind of you know save yourself any kind of headache so some things to consider they're suggesting is number one is the location of your garden boxes um you want to kind of put in the place where it's going to get the majority of the sun and no shade like you don't want to put underneath a tree which kind of makes sense secondly they want to suggest that you're going to consider the type of material you're going to use just because raw wood tends to lead to i don't know rottening but i don't want to use pressure treated just because i'm kind of nervous about the chemicals that they pressure treat the wood with so i'm just going to make sure we're going to use regular wood but not allow for it to be touching the ground as much as we can and at the same time we're going to suggest on it you know let it weatherize it oh and lastly uh the weeds you gotta consider the weeds uh have a weed barrier at the bottom of the raised beds our previous house the owner built them and they never laid it down and it was nightmare every season we had to spend an entire week trying to pull all the weeds out and then they grow back again so that's a hard lesson learned so we barrier all right so we have our lumber beautiful cedar uh i think i'm gonna keep this project simple in terms of tools i think i'm just gonna use like a circular saw and a drill that way you guys can do it yourself the goal on this project is going to be to keep it beginner builder friendly i think i want to limit myself to like three tools maybe two tools a circular saw an impact drill and the rest of them are not really tools i mean i'll we'll use a our speed square and some tape and you know but overall we'll try to stick it to two power tools i think we can get that done the way we're gonna start assembling this thing is we're gonna start cutting up all these pieces creating two platforms one for the top one for the bottom and securing them obviously with nice long three-inch screws once they're ready we'll start working on the reinforcing or the risers we'll call them that risers so in the meantime let's get building case you're seeing me use this uh speed square uh the reason i'm using with my circular saw that is it allows me to create a nice straight 90 degree cut so this is a part that goes on the edge of the wood and creating a nice straight line to follow and then the guide on the circular saw just slides around it all while at the same time not bogging the blade against the wood one of the handiest tools when building without a big old nice miter saw [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right if you made this part in the project you're looking real good let's talk the risers they're going to be cut and jointed together in this 90 degree angle it's going to give us stability it's not going to be swaying because of that we're going to cut these up to 23 inches plus an extra eight inches that's there yeah it'll be plenty tall so we're gonna cut up a few of those and start uh creating razors battery dive [Music] all right so we got everything built and now it's time to actually assemble this entire thing bottom top risers we're going to put these risers on these corners and then from the inside on the inside we're going to take these three inch screws that we're working with at an angle we're going to drive them in notice we're not doing wood glue because this stuff is going to expand and contract with the seasons and besides we're going to have a piece of metal inside this thing around so that'll be the reinforcement parts but these are the risers so let's throw them on yay [Music] if this is your first time building this congratulations you've officially built like a partial table like a like an upside down table probably not a very sturdy one you know securing like that but nonetheless you built a structure be proud of yourself we're gonna we're gonna flip this thing over and we're going to secure the other part of the frame down that way you're not screwing up it's just it just makes life easier the last part is to do the top trim um it's going to be right in the middle we're going to create 45 degrees at an angle to kind of wrap it imagine like a picture frame it just makes it so much nicer you could you could just do a butt joint but listen we're all about making things so much nicer that being said because all the screws already hidden on the inside we're going to do the same well this the side exposed i don't know debate do we secure them from the bottom up or just top bottom down bottom up just let's make it classy let's do it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right guys so we have our garden bed box uh ready out here now cedar is the best material to use for anything outdoors it just has a natural pigment that ages well we're going to do what's called sugiban and you've seen it before many times and what it is is through a torch or flame we burn the exterior core of it and what that does is it creates this dense callous kind of like feel on the exterior of the wood the pores and it clogs them it occludes them preventing any kind of moisture and rain getting absorbed and destroying the wood from the inside out to get this accomplished we're going to use our friends from burns-o-matic this is a burns-o-matic matte pro gas it burns a lot harder than propane though you could still get away with using propane it just takes a little bit longer and the torch i'm going to use one of my favorite ones this is the ts 8000 torch why i like it you can turn it on here's the flow and then you turn it on decrease your flow and then the best part lock it in place once it's locked in place you can control your burn even more and have a nice consistent controlled workflow that you want to work with so we're going to take this and i kind of get it to the point that we want it to look aesthetically um and then on top of that you have two options you can either seal it with linseed oil sometimes you can do it it gives a little more of a contrast and cool feel or you can leave it as b so let's get to [Music] work [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right so we got everything done i don't know if you noticed but i did the underneath side of it as it's sitting uh just to kind of give it the best scenario to survive the longest we need to go to the hardware store pick up two things i need a brush to brush all this ash and soot off of this thing so we have a nice finished product it doesn't get your hands dirty you know what i mean and then on top of that we're gonna need to pick up uh probably two sheets of the steel siding or the aluminum siding and then a roll of the wheat tarp to put down oh oh on top of that we need to figure out like a a slow drip uh sprinkler setup for this because i don't want to be out here just watering it i'm not doing that so let's go get ourselves all right we got our sucker up here look how dirty this thing is we're going to use a stiff brush just brush up all the soot and all the ash off of it exposing the new exterior and then after that we will give it a few coats of the bold linseed oil it's safe to do whatever you want on it we're just going to apply with a brush nothing fancy you don't have to even do this but i've done projects like that before and that's like the extra step that it goes along with it just gonna look really nice um so in the meantime take the cleaning [Music] so [Music] all right check out what i got this is i believe 32 gauge basically super thin it's either siding or roofing i don't remember but anywho it's in the lumber yard section uh towards usually in the very end um not bad at all price wise this eight foot long piece is is it eight foot yeah it is eight feet um it's like 15 bucks i got two of them because we're crazy good mathematicians that's 30 dollars don't worry about your calculators i got this one and uh so i'm gonna do is use my circular saw now i had the blade i have on my i was so close to cutting my leg oh so close the blade that i have on my circular saw is a bi-metal blade i can cut wood or i can actually cut i usually call this like a demo blade so cut studs with nails anywho i'm gonna mark it out cut it out and i'm gonna line it all on the inside then i'm gonna take screws like one inch screws and secure it on the inside right over or under that little apron that's on top so this is where it's really going to come to life [Applause] [Music] i have uh a sprinkler right over there we're gonna dig this up and then we're going to move it about you here and then here we're going to have it raised up about 30 inches so we could sit in that garden bed it's only like 82 no yeah oh man i'm such a voice it's 82 degrees i think shoveling and digging i think that's what that's what uh i can't i'm gonna have a heat shock i don't know anywho i'm tired gotta dig this up [Music] all right so let's talk about this low pressure system uh this is a riser just screws into the sprinkler that was there in place thread it on top and then a transition from a half inch to a three quarter inch now the reason why two three quarter inch is because the low pressure drip system comes with this little kit this is the part that screws in on top there's a 90 degree elbow and then we take this half inch uh poly pipe and then oh actually it's five eight i guess it's the outside diameter and it slides in place there you run it along the side or the top of your garden however you want it put your little drippers in place and then you cap this on the other end that way obviously it doesn't screw a screw screw doesn't shoot out i'm sorry guys i don't like working on the sun too much so with that being in mind we are going to bring our garden bed over put it on top and then put cardboard now it's interesting thing about cardboard is somebody said that that's a a pretty good way to keep like a like a makeshift uh weed barrier so i'll try it and i'll let you guys know next year how it holds up oh geez i totally forgot we need to uh put pavers that way this thing doesn't start rotting away i'm gonna get some papers let's go [Music] all right now we need our top so let's go so this is half a yard of topsoil and now what he's doing there is he's filling up a quarter yard of compost that we can mix it in together and we'll have ourself an excellent harvest season [Music] all right so our potting soil is in everything is ready now we have to make sure our jet system that's going to be watering everything is adequate and what we're going to go with is this is a recommendation to me these are adjustable full circle bubblers they are adjustable between 0 and 18 gallons per hour and the way we're going to work with these is there's a little tiny almost like a nipple so what we're going to do is we're going to take and create a hole in that black poly tube and this is just a sharpened screwdriver that i use to find studs on the wall if i don't trust my stud finder and then we're just going to puncture it in place and then we have a little adjuster and this goes from zero to seven and uh we're gonna spread them out evenly and then we'll fire this thing up and see how it's working let's do it [Music] okay okay okay okay okay final reveal let's see how she sprays [Music] oh she lives oh we got ourselves a garden folks i'm gonna go relax now um let me know in the comment section what things you guys should think i should plant in there never planted a garden i want tomatoes for sure cucumbers i heard they could be a little you know acidic or tarry whatever but anyway in the description below let me know the things that i absolutely have to plant that you guys highly recommend hey guys thanks so much for watching all my videos it means the world to me projects like this raised garden bed they might look intimidating but honestly this is the perfect project to get into a lot of you have dm me asking me what are the good first time projects simple projects limited tool projects that i can get into guys this is it it required a circular saw and a drill and we can knock this thing out courage and sweat that's all of our projects take on the courage the parts that look intimidating projects that look hard and then put in the sweat the hard work to get through all the frustrating moments because we're going to take lessons from this that applies to the next project we get into and we're going to be better builders and better people because life is full of obstacles and problems and it's all about how you overcome them right make sure you check out all my links down in the description for all my social medias as well as my patreon page where i release some of the behind the scenes stuff some sneak peeks on the projects that i work on that you guys don't know yet about including many vlogs that are released walking through these projects about what i would have done differently little tips and bits of advice that you know hey watch out for this and this is what i screwed up on so hope you guys find value in that tune out this week we'll see you guys on the next one see ya bye [Music] there we go we got a hole we're gonna look nice and nice nice and nice you're gonna look nice it's just single now what's the worst thing solving problems that's what we're in the business for solving problems all right we're just teaching people how to get started and that is it

Channel: Mr. Build It

Views: 362,426

Keywords: raised garden bed, self watering garden bed, mr build it, gardening, how to garden, how to make a garden, self sustaining ga, self watering garden, sub-irrigated planter, raised bed gardening, build a raised garden bed, self watering garden boxes, diy, do it yourself, backyard ideas, raised bed, urban gardening, how to, raised bed garden, self watering planter, raised bed vegetable gardening for beginners, raised bed garden construction, raised garden bed plans

Id: Dx6ejO5BzH4

Length: 17min 59sec (1079 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 24 2020