How to Build a Raised Bed CHEAP and EASY, Backyard Gardening

what's going on growers James Prigioni coming  to you live from Jersey most of you know me   as the food forest guy which is great because  I love designing and growing them but I also   love other practical and convenient ways to grow  food that's what I want to share with you today   how to build your own cheap and easy raised bed  garden let's go if you saw my last video then   you know I recently just took out a Red Delicious  apple tree that I had planted in this section the   reason I did that is because this hazelnut tree  was just doing so well has just gotten so large   that it shaded out this area way too much for  that apple tree to produce and to do well that's   the reason I couldn't graft onto it or anything  because it's just not getting enough light so I   took that tree out right here and to replace this  tree what I'm going to do is be building a raised   bed in this section and there's a few different  reasons why I'm doing one of the main reasons   that I want to grow a raised bed in this section  here and not just plan how I usually do directly   into the ground is because I have this hazelnut  tree behind me some of the other trees here and   I don't want to disturb those roots this way  by putting a raised bed in I'll avoid a lot of   those issues that's the same reason people like  growing raised beds in sections that are hard   clay or if they have really rocky soil you can  avoid some of those issues you're gonna run into   by putting a raised bed in let's start building  another reason I'm going to be building a raised   bed here is because I'm running out of space to  play my annuals with my new food forest and the   trees are getting bigger the strawberries are  starting to spread so I'm just running out of   space to grow annuals and things because I love  planting them I love my tomatoes my peppers my   lettuces and everything like that also a good  reason to have a raised bed is if you're planning   on growing in a section that you're renting or  you're not going to be living there for a long   time you may not want to waste a lot of time  building your soil through mulching and stuff   which can take years because you know you're  gonna be out of that section soon so a raised   bed it could be a good option for that we have  all of our wood here now the dimensions of the   bed are gonna be 4 foot by 8 foot as you can see  we're not using pressure-treated wood because we   don't want the option of any of those chemicals  or anything that's in it to mess with what we're   growing and I'll talk more about the wood that  I'm using as I progressed the wood that we're   going to be using are 3 2 by 10s so 10 inches  in this height right here at 8 feet long and   then three two by fours at 18 feet long as well  the only thing is the two by fours are just a   little shorter than the 2 by 10 so we're gonna  have to cut the 2 by 10 it's just a little bit   bucks out here relax and watch me and if don't  feel comfortable cutting the wood yourself or   you can do is if you go to Home Depot or Lowe's  just make sure you have your dimensions before   you go there and then let them know what  they are and they'll cut the wood for you   I had them do that for me before and they do an  excellent job because they have a track saw it   gets everything Square and perfect so let me just  mark this here and then we're just gonna cut it   with a skill saw for the cost of the two by tens  you're looking at just over eleven dollars for   the cost of the two by fours they're just over  two dollars and you could do this without the   two by fours to make it even cheaper but it's  not gonna be as convenient as I'll show you we got the two of them cut and now they're all  the same length so we like to say we cut those   two two by tens down trim them just a little bit  and I don't know why exactly that they they're not   the same length as a two by fours but we'll deal  with it next we're just gonna cut this piece in   half and then one of these will be our top one  the bottom and then these two are gonna be our   size I got all my wood cut and before I start  to build it I wanted to clean out this section   here because I don't want to have to build it  then move it it's gonna be pretty heavy when   it's done so you're going to want to build  it in this section that it's going to be in   I have that section cleaned out now if you have  grass here you may want to put down some cardboard   or even some contractors paper but if you're going  to go tend to stick like me you should be okay   even just leaving it unless you have some strong  perennial weeds next I'm going to be screwing this   all together after I have it staged in the spot  that I want it I'm going to be using three inch   deck screws so they work well outside they're not  going to rust or anything I don't want any rust in   the garden and they're strong and long but first  before we get to put those screws in we're going   to want to pre-drill just so we don't split the  wood and we're gonna have we have a countersink   bit on here as well so I'll show you how to do  that this wood right here is an inch and a half   so we're gonna want to go about 3/4 of an inch in  halfway we're gonna put four screws in just make   sure it's strong and then that countersink just  makes it so the screws won't stick out we got this   screw started here now we're gonna do our best to  make it as flush on the top and as the back as we   can make it okay that's one of the sides then  we've got three more to go so let's keep going okay that's the last screw it looks good looks  nice and square I'll check it again at the end   but now I want to show you what the idea was  with cutting the two by 10s in the same length   of these two by fours so I can put these two by  fours up here as a rail this isn't 100% necessary   but it's going to help help hold the whole thing  together it's also going to be a nice little area   for us to sit and reach into the bed so what  we're gonna do is put a few pieces of wood   in here to the inside this way I have something  to screw that screw down to on this side and on   this side here for this section here basically  making these little cleats I'm just gonna cut   this 8-foot piece into one foot sections this  way I can get eight of them and you could just   use scrap what if you want I just didn't have  any on hand so I had to buy this extra piece okay I got these cleats all done now I'm just  gonna put one here up like this one up here as   well and then I'm gonna put two at the ends to  kind of straighten everything up and make sure   I have them flush at the top they're got the  last support in it's coming out real well I'm   happy with the way it looks and there's not much  left to do so this build is almost finished and   I can't wait to start getting a filter then  get growing now let's get this side rail on make sure it's nice a good length I checked for  square it's all square which makes it easier and   to make sure it's all square you're gonna want  to make sure you get good wood take the time to   select the wood make sure it's straight make  sure it's not bowed make sure it doesn't have   any cupping in it so what we're gonna do is  first attach one side and then see if we have   to bend it bend this at all if this is straight  enough this board let's get this one corner in this first screw is going to go in the board  that's parallel with it this other screw is   gonna go in the one that's perpendicular so it's  gonna lock the whole thing together I got those   two sides in those rails my drill battery started  died on me a little bit so I'm skipping a couple   spots where the screws are gonna go but I'll  go back and put those in next I need to cut a   piece just to fill this gap in this section right  here so instead of having to measure it I'm just   gonna take my piece of wood hold it up and then  just mark it I have this bumped up against the   side then I'm just gonna mark from over the  top then we'll just cut that to life we got   that cut to length should be good it's good  like that now we're just going to pre-drill there we go I got the final piece cut now we  just have to drill it in there we go last screw   and it's looking great tuk-tuks over there  looks like he dug himself a nice deep hole   see what he's doing he's hanging out underneath  the shiso and all this she said we have so much   of it growing here but I didn't want to take any  of it out because the bees have been loving it   it looks like tuck likes hanging out underneath  there hey boy dug yourself a nice deep hole huh   boy he's really deep down there you must have been  getting hot he was getting a little bored I think   watching us so he looks like he's a little bit  tired even to what a good guy so relaxed so it   doesn't look like tucks having as much fun with  this video as he does with some of the other   ones but that's okay he's still out there always  behind us there were some hearts in the comments   and you guys love to see and talk if you like him  being a part of the whole garden the channel and   everything with it he seems super relaxed right  now I just made sure this is all level leveled   this way and then level this way also then I check  my diagonals it looks good what I did was dig out   this section here which was a little high rather  than propping any besides up because I wanted to   be too basically on the ground and I'm not worried  about this rotting that much even though it's not   pressure-treated it should last a good five six  maybe seven years and I don't have any posts into   the ground because that'll just make the rot  happen even quicker and I'm not worried about   it bowing out too much because I got these side  braces and also I'm only ten inches high and if   when I put the soil in that's gonna really add a  lot of weight to this whole bed so I'm not worried   about it shifting too much because this is a good  sized bed as you can see though if I sit on the   rail here I can easily reach into the center so  this will be good this was just to check the level   I'm gonna be taking that out now we're gonna start  filling it with soil the first thing that I'm   going to add is peat moss and this can be slightly  acidic but that's okay because the rest of the bed   I'm gonna be filling mainly with black leaf mulch  which I get for free locally and that's highly   alkaline the only issue is it can't really retain  moisture so am i adding this it's gonna greatly   increase its ability to retain moisture I'm gonna  dump this in get some black leaf mulch and mix it   all together and then I'm gonna add some my own  homemade compost the best stuff you can grow with   all right here's the first load of the black leaf  mulch you can see it's got a nice dark color to it   so we're just gonna shovel all this in good local  free resource that's another reason I wanted to do   the raised bed because I knew I could get this  locally for free so what I want to do is shovel   all this in and I'm going to mix it up with the  peat moss so it's almost like building our own   soil because this mulch is high it's nutritious  it's alkaline but it's just like I said it's not   it can't hold water well it dries out quickly  and then once it gets dry it's really hard to   make it absorb water again I'd say about 10 more  wheelbarrows and I'll be done what I'm gonna do   is after I get some more loads and just come and  just mix it up I'm gonna use a pitchfork to do   it but we'll mix it and get a better composition  that's today's video gross thanks for watching I   hope you enjoyed it I hope you got something out  of it the raised bed is finished the building of   it it looks fantastic I'm super happy with the  way it came out all I have to do is continue   to fill it up with some more black leaf mulch  mix it all together get a nice composition so   we can start growing things then I'm gonna build  one more but I'll show you next video what that   all looks like I hope you are encouraged to know  that you don't have to have a whole food forest   to grow your own food a raised bed is fine just  a couple potted plants on a balcony is fantastic   too if you enjoyed the video hit the like button  hit the subscribe button share with your friends   don't forget to check out the merge down low  tuck and James move back to real soon we out!

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 4,033,509

Keywords: how to build a raised bed, raised bed, raised bed garden, how to, how to fill a raised bed, build a raised bed, fill a raised bed, garden, gardening, organic, organic garden, james prigioni, migardener, oneyardrevolution

Id: MBIYebUgVVI

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 02 2019