Bracing a Raised Bed

Figure B

"I'm a huge fan of raised beds, and over the years, I've constructed a good many of them using a variety of materials, including railroad ties, cinderblocks, stones (figure A) and wood (figure B)," Paul says. Some of his beds have been as small as four square feet, while others have encompassed gardens as large as 1,000 square feet.

Raised beds are great for just about anything from vegetables to ornamentals. And for folks who live in areas where the native soil is hard packed or so full of rocks that it's tough to grow anything, raised beds are perhaps the only way to go.

"Of all the possible materials available for building raised beds, I think wood is arguably the best," says Paul. "It's readily available, reasonably priced and fairly easy to work with, even if you have only minor carpentry skills like me." He recommends choosing rot-resistant woods like cedar or redwood because they can last a decade even when in contact with the ground.

Figure C

To construct a basic raised bed from wood, start with three boards of equal length. Paul uses boards measuring eight feet long and at least six inches wide. Cut one board in half and fasten each half to the opposite ends of the two long boards using galvanized screws or nails (figure C).

A bed like this will probably serve you well for a while, but over time a few things will likely happen. The corners may begin to pull apart no matter how well they're fastened together, and worse yet, the longer side boards (especially if they're longer than eight feet) will begin to warp and bow out. You can create stronger corners by attaching the boards to square posts. And if the sides of the beds are only four feet or so, they probably won't warp. While they're certainly attractive and functional, Paul is not a huge fan of corner posts, however. They take up space in the bed and make it more difficult to work in and around the corners with garden tools.

Figure E

"Also, I prefer my beds to be at least eight feet long, so imagine my surprise when I came across two incredibly innovative items aimed at addressing both issues," he says.

The first tool is a ready-made, easy-to-install corner connector, and the other is an in-line connector designed to prevent warping (figure E). The corner connector comes with a stake, which you drive into the ground. The slip brackets fit over the stake to create the corners. These brackets are made for six-inch dimensional lumber, and the lumber slips right into the brackets along the outer edge. If you want, though, you can actually reverse the process and stack the brackets vertically to create a 12-inch-tall raised bed.

Figure G

But before building the frame, you need to prepare the site by leveling the ground where the raised bed will be. Lay landscape fabric over the area, and fasten it to the ground with landscape-fabric pins (figure G). Or, you can cover the area with at least five layers of newspaper. Either method accomplishes the same goal: to help prevent grass and weeds from growing up into the bed.

Figure H

Attach the boards to the brackets by sliding them into the bracket channels (figure H), and attach them with galvanized screws.

Figure J

With the boards securely fastened to the brackets, lay the raised bed frame on top of the landscape fabric (figure J) and verify that it is level.

Figure K

Slip the stakes through the round ends of the brackets (figure K), and place a supplied cap on each stake. Hammer the stakes into the ground. Fill the frame with improved soil mixed with plenty of compost, and plant away.

Figure M

That takes care of connecting the boards, and to solve the other problem, namely the tendency of long side boards to warp, Paul uses the inline connectors. For a bed 16 feet long, attach two 8-foot boards to the in-line connectors with the screws provided. You can attach a board perpendicular to the sideboards to divide the bed into two sections (figure M).

There are two more interesting things about the corner connectors:

Figure O

The brackets rotate on the stake, so you can turn them to form any desired angle, from wide to narrow (figure O) for more interestingly shaped beds.

Figure P

Another cool trick is to flip one of the brackets over so you can create a terraced bed on sloping ground (figure P).

These gadgets (which are available from several different manufacturers) aren't only for raised beds. For instance, you could use them to construct a raised-bed frame and then fill it with sand instead of soil for a quick sandbox. Or you could stack them on multiple stakes to create anything from a planter box to a compost pile.

"In all my years of gardening, I've learned a few lessons, very often the hard way," Paul says. "One of the most important lessons I've learned is that the surest way to successful gardening is to grow things in raised beds. And with the help of those two handy little gizmos, you too can become a successful raised-bed gardener."