Raised Beds

I've enjoyed gardening or just simply growing plants for the better part of 15 years now, but it wasn't until last season ('18) when I finally put "roots in the ground."  I'll explain.

Container garden tomatoes, 4/30/15

My first forays into gardening were herbs in pots in college.  I took one look at the price of fresh basil at the grocery store versus the price of a plant, and I quickly became a gardener.  That was fine and good when I was student, or even as I moved apartment to apartment for my first couple of jobs in TV news.  Once I got back home to Nashville and had a duplex with a little outdoor space to stretch my gardening legs, I got into tomatoes, and of course tomatoes need lots of space.  Fast forward a couple years, and my collection of pots outside the condo building where I lived with my wife was evidently the topic of my neighbors' derision. 

No one ever said anything to me, but I clearly had a pot problem.

The cure was a fifth of an acre in suburbia.  Our home's flat and wide-open back yard had me dreaming of raised beds for several months.  We moved in July '17, so I had plenty of time to plan, and I finally built and planted beds during the '18 growing season.  Here's my design.

I take 8'x2' sections of corrugated steel and cross cut at 1' intervals.  I use my circular saw with a metal blade and cut multiple pieces of metal at the same time (Don't forget your eye and ear protection.  Seriously).  Then I take the cut sections which are now 2'x1' and join them together, overlapping slightly and securing with self-drilling sheet metal screws.  The wooden frame on top is just pressure treated 2x4 lumber that's squared up with angle braces.  I secure the metal to the wood with more angle braces.

Last year, I ended up with 2-8'x4' beds and 1-4'x4' bed.  Most of what I planted grew great, but of course I was wishing for more space before the summer was through. 

As I was building the beds last year, I modified a key construction technique as I went along, and it really improved the results.  On the two big beds, I closed the loop of corrugated steel before attaching to the wood frame.  While this worked good enough, it wasn't as structurally sound or as attractive as I wanted.  I solved this issue on the smaller bed by waiting to close the loop until after attaching the metal to the frame – that way I could pull it all tight and exactly match the size needed.

I used that technique as I added more beds, doubling my bed space.  This year, I'll have 160 square feet for vegetables.  Now I just need some dirt!