How to Build a Raised Bed, DIY TERRACE GARDEN for Patio or Backyard

what's going on growers it's james piggioni coming to you live from jersey today i'm going to show you how to easily build your own terraced raised bed for your patio or garden let's go the idea is to end up with two planting areas that are four feet wide and two feet in length but we can't just make it four feet wide the raised bed because we're going to be putting these caps on it just like i have in this raised bed here so we need to account for the width of these i'm going to put a cut list in the description to give you guys an idea of all the length of boards i'm going to be using and cutting and i'm also going to describe it more as the video progresses for this raised bed we're going to be essentially building two rectangular boxes and then taking a smaller one and placing it on the top for these raised beds i decided to go with two by tens right here and i needed a two by ten one at 64 inches and another one at 52 inches for the length and the width but i couldn't find any two by tens that were like eight uh six feet long they only had ones that were eight feet long so what i did was go to the people at lowe's and ask them if they could just take a 12 foot two by ten like this and just cut it in half for me so that's what they did for free in total i needed seven pieces of these two by tens so i just had them take four two by tens that were twelve feet long and cut them in half but if you already know your measurements like i'm going to put down in the cut list then you can just have them cut to the perfect measurement right off the start like this one here for the first length i'm going to cut it at 62 inches i have my measurement at 62 inches now i just put this square up to bump up against it this way i get a nice straight cut because i'm not a professional carpenter that's cut at 62 inches we're going to do the same thing for the other side we have the length of both of them cut now we're just going to get the width and that's going to be 52 inches so we'll mark that and cut we're going to cut this and then do the same thing for one more of them and then start putting our bottom box together i just finished cutting the second piece at 52 inches and if you're not going to follow my exact measurements i want to explain to you a little bit why i couldn't just cut this at 48 inches so we want to end up with 48 inches in width which is gonna be four feet but i couldn't just cut this at four feet because first we have to account for the fact that i'm going to be bumping this on the inside so what we have to do is take those 48 inches and subtract an inch and a half from this side and an inch and a half from this side which is three inches so we take that 48 inches we subtract three that gives us 45 inches then we also have to account for the fact that we're going to be putting these rails on so when i put this rail on here each rail is going to be three and a half inches so we then have to add three and a half inches on each side so we take that 45 inches that we're left with and add an additional seven inches which gives us 52 inches so we put the rail on this side and the rail on the other side and i'll show you it'll end up end us up with 48 inches on the inside and that's what we want 48 inches right there and it's not absolutely perfect just yet because i haven't connected all the pieces together we're going to do that now now i'm going to start attaching this all together i'm going to make sure that the 52 inch one is the one that bumps into the 62 inch one and to attach it i'm just going to use these right angle clamps it makes it really easy if you're on your own i got this one attached it looks good i'm going to do the same thing on the other corners and this would be a lot easier if you did on a flat surface i'm just doing on the ground here to give you guys a better visual i have the right angle clamps on three sides i'm just going to put this one on the fourth side and this isn't completely necessary it just like i said makes it easier and it makes sure that you get some good right angles so we're going to attach this and then start screwing together that looks good like that and to attach everything we're gonna be using two and a half inch deck screws and they always come with this extra bit which is convenient so this is the right bit we're gonna be using for it and we're gonna make sure that we're pre-drilling before we actually drill into the wood because we don't want any splitting we're gonna go with four uh screws in each corner we're gonna start at the bottom here so i can pull it all together while i'm doing it and this is the countersink bit too which uh makes it a lot cleaner too so that the screws will sit nice and flush into the wood so let's get the first one in making sure that we're counting for the bottom making sure it's all level we'll do the same thing three more we're gonna do the same thing on other three sides there's the final screwing right there the bottom box is all finished being built now i'm going to grab two of these two by tens and we're going to build this top box so the top box measurements are going to be just a little bit different and i'll show you why if we did the same size as we did for that bottom box then it would be on the inside like this and and we don't want that we want to make sure that this extends the whole length so we're getting the overlap over top here so all we really have to do is just measure the distance from one side to the other for this top box which is going to be 55 inches so we're going to cut two pieces at 55 inches of this 2x10 so let's just mark this at 55 inches cut it and do the same thing for one other we have both those pieces cut at 55 inches now let's just throw them up here make sure they're perfect this one's going to be in the back this one's going gonna be in the front here so this is how the back side is gonna look you can see we've got that overlap there now we want this the distance the planting area in the inside here to be 24 inches but just like before we have to take that 24 inches and then subtract an inch and a quart quarter an inch and a half and an inch and a half which is three inches that'll give us 21 inches then we have to add back the seven inches because we're gonna have two pieces that are three and a half inches so we need to make a piece in the center here for a total of 28 inches so let's just mark that 28 and then cut two pieces both those pieces are cut at 28 inches tuck's over here watching me he gets a little afraid of the saw but he still wants to be out here with us right boy he's got a little dirty nose he was digging a spot before making sure he's got a nice spot in the shade getting some sun now but we're gonna line this up right here and we're just going to put this box together right on top of the other one and i'm going to attach it the same way i did the other box [Music] there we go got that last screw in we're going to take these off and then we've got the top part built it's not attached yet but we're going to attach it after we bring it into the location now i'm just going to show you a little bit about how we're going to be putting it together we're going to have these caps at the top and these caps provide a few different a different uh good things about them one of them is that it's going to lock everything together so it's going to lock all these boards together making it much stronger it's also going to be really nice for when we're working we could just come over here sit on the cap like this and work inside of our bed so it's got a bunch of different things that it's really nice about so this is how we're gonna be setting it up we're gonna have that cap up there we're gonna have another cap right here then we're gonna have this cap going this way i still have to cut all of them like that and then i'll show you how we have a distance in the center this cap is going to be over here and then when you come in close you'll see by putting these caps on top it's going to give us our two foot spacing two feet on the inside and then four feet on the inside here so that's going to give us our perfect size so we can do a nice square foot gardening the same thing is going to be going on on the bottom we're going to take one of these boards these two by fours we're going to lay it right in here like this then we're going to take another 2x4 and put it in here like this and again the same thing we can sit on the edge we can put our seeds up here it just makes everything super convenient and that's going to give us our two foot spacing on the inside and then after we put the caps on the other side the forefoot spacing over there so if you want to save some money and you don't want to put the extra work in you don't have to put these caps on the top i think it just makes it look so much nicer it makes it more convenient to work with and overall i just think it's definitely worth it so we're going to get these all measured and cut and then we're going to start moving the bed into the location so for the top cap it's going to be the same as the length here it's going to be 55 inches you don't even have to measure if you don't want to you can just put this board at the edge and then just mark it right here so we're going to do that for this cap and then that cap then we'll just measure the distance between these two right here so let's measure this at 55 inches and we're going to be cutting four of these pieces at 55 inches [Applause] we have those four pieces cut so now we're just going to bump them up here and these were eight foot pieces so what's left over we're gonna be able to use as these side pieces here so we'll bump those up like that that's how that one's gonna go this one up here we'll attach them and then we're going to measure this piece and cut that i'm actually not going to attach it just yet because i need to bring the box into the location i'm just building it here so you guys can see it easier so let's just get this distance from here to here looks like it's going to be 24 inches so we're gonna need four pieces at 24 inches so let's measure this at 24 inches and then we're just using these scrap pieces from what was left over from before there we go that's the final piece cut and this whole thing could have been easier if you just have a drop saw but i like to just use a circular saw like that and just a couple of drills to show you guys that you anybody can really do this you don't need amazing tools in order to build like your own garden bed so we're going to put all these pieces this is how they're all going to go in this section here so we've got all these four pieces cut now what we're going to do is we're going to bring this whole bed in pieces over to the location that i'm going to be actually planting in because i don't want it to be super super heavy when i bring it over just get this piece in the bottom piece first and this is the location where i'm going to be building the bed so we're in the back of the food forest right here but i have this concrete pad back here and i'm not really using for anything so i figured let's build a raised bed that we can put on a patio to get the utilization of the space you can see we're still getting some good sun in here in this location so i've measured it out that's why i built this size bed so let's just get it on here stage it and then start putting it all together so this is essentially how it's going to be we're just going to kind of match the pad here and then you'll notice that the pad is actually super unlevel and there's spots where if i just put soil into this bed right now it's just going to drain out the bottoms like under here so what we're going to do is have to level this out then i'm going to build this kind of little kind of basket system underneath here to make sure the soil doesn't drain away i'm going to start by taking some hardware cloth attaching them to the inside and then using landscape fabric over that i'll show you now i forgot to mention before i build that hardware cloth basket on the inside i'm just going to linseed oil this and all the other pieces this is going to help preserve the wood and it's also going to give you that nice look on the outside so we're just going to be liberal with the linseed oil do the top two and then flip it over and do all the other pieces i have all the pieces linseed oiled and they're basically all good to go now i'm going to take you inside we're going to build that cloth basket at the bottom and then we're going to attach everything together now we're inside the bed here i'm going to take this hardware cloth and just run it along the bottom and almost make like a little basket let's open this up first we got this all unraveled here now what i'm going to do is just take this piece lay it out and i'm essentially just going to cut it in half because this is 10 feet and my distance from this side to the other side is 55 inches so it should be perfect with a little overhang looks like this guy wants to be part of the video huh boy let's measure this though exactly five feet so that's gonna be about right here i'll mark it and then start cutting right like that we have that piece cut now we're going to step on the inside and i'm going to cut two of these corners so i can fold it on the inside of the bed as well so i'm just going to cut at one of these corners here and then this piece here the width is 36 inches so two pieces will give me 72 inches this whole bed is 62 inches so that gives me about 10 inches extra so if i want i could do four inch overlap here and that gives me three inches on each side so we're gonna go with that so what i did was bend about four inches here then i folded those corners over there next what i'm going to do is just take these screws right here and they've got washers on them i'm going to screw it right into there make it nice and easy for me and it comes with a bit as well right here so let's get that on and get some of it attached i have inch and a quarter screws here too so it doesn't go through the whole board i'm gonna put one at the top actually i'll start one at the bottom here and then i'll put another one at the top if you want you could use the u-nails the poultry nails but i find this to be a lot easier now i'm just going to screw this corner one in and then i'll screw this other side into the wall right there that'll make my corners all nice and i just wanted to mention again this is only really necessary if you're in a situation like i'm in right here where the concrete is so unlevel if you're in a regular garden then you don't really have to do any of this bottom stuff here and if you have really flat concrete you may not even have to do this i got this other side in here and i'm not too worried about like reaching in and cutting my hands either because i'm gonna have the cap on the side so let's screw this first one in along the corner and then you can see the overlap right here so we'll just work our way down the reason that i'm making a basket like this instead of just attaching it to the bottom because i'm worried about over time the concrete kind of working at the metal and just cracking and having it seep out so i think this is going to be the safest way to create a basket of holding the soil because i'm going to put the landscape fabric right over top of this we have that all connected as like a little basket i'll lift to show you and this is going to be real nice what we're going to do next is just put that landscape fabric in and that's going to make it so the soil can hold in there without draining out but they're still going to allow water to drain out the bottom so it's not just going to go anaerobic by sitting in there the whole time now we're going to go with the landscape fabric this is 36 inches too so i'm just gonna do the same thing where i'm gonna put it up about four inches and then just overlap it a little bit now we're gonna attach this landscape fabric and i've just got this stable gun here and i've got half inch staples that i'm gonna be using all right we got this all lined up now i'm just gonna start in this corner here just going to staple it in now we got the landscape fabric and everything down there we're going to start attaching the top part and this part is important because we want to make sure we're attaching this top part on the far north side so the highest part has to be on the north side because we get our sun sitting in the south we don't want to make sure we're shading any of the bed we don't want to be shading any of our plants now we're going to take one of our scrap 2 by 10s we're going to put it up like this to attach these two pieces together the two boxes we're going to make it flush at the top so that when we screw our cap this will also be able to screw right down into the cap so we'll have like a double use out of this we're not actually wasting anything too because this is our scrap so first i'm just going to attach this top top part and then i'll attach it to the bottom part now i want to make sure this outside is flush so i'm not going to go crazy sinking these screws in because i have to work against the mesh just a little bit there we go that looks nice just like that now that top part is connected we're gonna do the same exact thing on the other side i have those braces in the back here i ended up going with three and they're all flush at the top so it'll fit the cap perfectly now i need to put something down here so that when i put the cap on i have something to screw to so i'm gonna put one here one here and one here and then for this one here i'll just be able to screw it from the back i'll show you so i'm just gonna get this flush pre-drill it and then connect it [Music] and i'll do the same thing on the other sides now let's just take these cap pieces and uh just attach them pre-drill them and attach them right to the top just like this so we're gonna make sure they're as flush as we can get them they should be perfect sized and then i'm not worried about this whole bed moving once i'm finished and i fill it with soil and stuff it's going to be so heavy that it's not going to be shifting at all so we'll do the same thing for all the rest then we'll take this center piece it should fit perfect if our math is good there you go slides in nice then we'll just put for now we'll just put a screw in the center [Music] and i'll do the same on all the rest there we go final screw in i'm real happy with the way it came out now you can see we've got this terraced raised bed two sections two foot long by four foot long so we do the square foot gardening in here too and i love these caps at the top i think it makes a huge difference now what i'm going to do is uh fill this with some soil and if you want with this deeper bed right here you can feel some sticks and just compost at the bottom to save space but the reason i wanted this terra style is because if you're going to just grow on concrete then some of the deep-rooted vegetables won't do that well with only about 10 inches of soil but up here you can grow different kinds of things that like a deeper soil some carrots and any of that kind of stuff like deep soil so that's the idea with this so i think we can get a lot of utilization out of it almost got this all filled and if you want to know what soil i used i just made my own soil and i showed you guys how i did that and how to start a container garden so it's basically all filled up i just need to make one more mixture of it i'm real happy with the way it came out and i think it's just gonna it's gonna grow a lot of food i'm getting all this extra space growing on the patio that i've never even had before so let me just show you the dimensions on the inside how it came out just like we wanted we wanted two feet on the inside so we've got that nice exactly two feet there and then we wanted four feet as the width so the perfect four feet like that so we can set this up in the square foot guarding method which is what we're going to do and we've got these nice sides where we can just sit reach in plant anything we want and i think it's just a super convenient way to do it one thing i forgot to mention that i didn't show actually was you're going to want to make sure this whole bed is level so we went through and leveled this whole thing or i did before i actually filled it with the soil so just make sure that your bed is level and that's one of the reasons that i have to put the cloth and the landscape fabric at the bottom because my pad isn't perfectly level so now i'm not going to have any soil just draining out when i'm ordering it that's today's video growers thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed it i hope you got something out of it i hope you take the time to build your own raised bed even if it's on a patio like this you know it's going to be so great to be able to grow this food in the spot that i've never grown before a couple things we want to make sure is that the highest part is on the north side and it's going to be nice planting all of our deep-rooted crops here and some of our more shallow red crops here like our lettuces and stuff so if you enjoyed the video hit the like button hit the subscribe button share with your friends don't forget to check out the merch down low and remember whenever you're on amazon start your shopping with our amazon affiliate link talking james we baggage again real soon we

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 258,190

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, DIY, DIY raised bed, DIY garden, Garden Answer, Epic gardening, James prigioni, Self Sufficient me

Id: VTXdcWRPH4c

Length: 19min 57sec (1197 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 13 2020