Raised garden bed also called garden box, is great for growing small plots of veggies and flowers. Raised garden beds are easy to set up, plant and maintain, producing high yields in a compact space with less digging and weeding.

Application Of Raised garden bed ：
Use raised garden beds to grow vegetables, or install the beds along a perimeter to create stunning border gardens. You can even build a pyramid garden by stacking smaller beds atop larger ones.

Raised garden bed offers many benefits such as improved soil, higher yields, ease of access, longer growing seasons, and better pest control.

Raised garden bed  Parameters:
Length:500mm
Width: 500mm
Hight: 200mm

CN Forefront Raised garden bed is an easy way to create interest and add dimension to
your garden, if any interests in our products, please contact us for more information.

There is a large range of garden planter and home decor products at CN Forefront, you may like:
Green wall
Flower tower
Box planter
Railing planter/Fence planter
Living wall gardens
Roof garden
Vertical garden
Hanging Planter
Wall Planter
Indoor planter
Grassy paver
Lamp post planter
Raised garden bed
Outdoor planter
Self watering planter
window planter

More information,you can get from our website http://www.cnforefront.com.

Missy manages to climb to the top of the barn and nestle herself into the barley straw…high enough to keep a watchful eye on all!

This is one girl who takes no prisoners…just look at that expression!

A good sprinkling of lettuce seeds and within a few weeks there is more than enough to harvest for weeks to come.

Most people can manage to be self-sufficient in salad for at least half the year!

This is a potager style bed, with Lavender and Thyme nearby.

There are several varieties of lettuce here, in amongst the Nasturtium and Borage.

Sedum and Poppies continue to push their way up through the compost!

Moving compost from last year’s heap over to the new raised vegetable bed today.

A bed of abundance outside the tunnel today.

And here’s the new raised vegetable bed…coming along…

Sunday, we had another task to take care of – building the raised garden bed.  At first, we were going to buy a raised garden bed kit, but we figured we could make our own a lot cheaper (and we were right) as we took the great advice from our friends at Home Depot.  Our raised garden bed is 6′ x 16′ and that is one nice size of a garden, ready for tons of plants!  Anyhow, Daddy & Mommy worked outside on Sunday in the air that turned quite cold, but they were determined to finish the frame for the raised garden bed.  It even rained on them a little, but they still did not stop, they just kept on going. 

They had to first build the first level of the frame and get all the sides connected with the metal anchors, then they worked on the second level.  Once both levels of the frame were complete, they set the second level on top of the first level and adhered them together with more metal brackets.  The tough part was picking up entire frame that was on the driveway and walking it over to the back yard where they wanted the garden.  Man, you just never know how heavy something gets when everything is put together, but somehow, they got it to the grass where it will now stay.  The next thing we have to do is lay down the black liner to cover the grass in the garden & to keep out the weeds.  We will roll it out and staple it to the sides of the raised bed frame to hold in the dirt.  The dirt delivery will be this weekend and we will fill up the garden and get it ready for planting.  We will have a very busy weekend the end of May as this is when we are planning to plant all of the vegetable plants in our garden as this is the perfect time to do so for our planting zone, which is zone 5.

So, that was our weekend – - Saturday: Planted Seeds, Sunday: Put together the raised garden bed.  On Monday: Guess what we saw?  We just noticed that we have a little cucumber sprout starting to emerge from the soil!   We can’t believe it, as we just planted these on Saturday!  WOW, is all we have to say!  In just two days, we got our first sprout! 

Ya know what, until we made the decision to have a vegetable garden this year, we never thought of saving the seeds from the vegetables we purchased from the grocery store before, but now….  we are cleaning and saving all the seeds from these vegetables so that we won’t have to buy seeds for next year!  If you never thought of this before, you should start thinking about doing this as it will save you a lot of money on vegetable purchases.  You don’t even need to make a huge garden like we are, as you can plant your seeds in containers and have a nice harvest of fresh vegetables right on your patio!  We can’t believe we never thought of this before, because last year we had three cherry tomato plants in containers just sitting on our driveway and they produced enough cherry tomatoes for us to enjoy the whole summer! 

So, what do you think of our new raised garden bed?  Do you think we did a good job?  It took us many hours to get all of this done, but we are anticipating reaping what we sow and look forward to a very delicious garden this year!

What is going to be interesting for us to find out is “exactly” how many vegetables we will produce from our garden.  Since Mommy loves graphs, she will count each vegetable that is harvested from our garden, and make a graph so we can see how well our plants did in producing veggies!  It will be interesting to see the outcome!

The Beginning

Mateo and I have talked about growing a kitchen garden for years. With two young kids, growing our own vegetables has felt like a huge undertaking, so we’ve put it off and put it off. Finally, this year, I felt motivated to start some form of “eating” garden with Caleb. We cook together so frequently and discuss the origins of food; it makes perfect sense to grow some of our own food, and then cook with it.

In early spring, I started to think about growing strawberries, so that Caleb and Sadie could have the experience of growing, picking, then eating sweet summer fruit. About a month ago, we started small and purchased a bunch of organic seedlings to plant into containers: ever-baring strawberries, Persian cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and fresh herbs (two varieties of basil, spearmint, chocolate mint, garlic chives, sage, rosemary, and thyme…yes, I hear a song playing in my head).

I set aside an afternoon with Caleb, and together we planted our first fruits and vegetables in containers. It was wonderful to watch him first pull the seedlings out of their containers with his tiny boy hands, massage and break apart the roots, dig a hole in the pot, then place the seedling in the center of the hole. Together, we filled in and patted the soil around the seedlings, and then Caleb carefully watered them. When all was planted, we were both filled with a real sense of accomplishment.

About a week after planting our container garden, I was weeding our long brick planter out on our patio (formerly used for bulbs and other flowers; currently displaying a wide array of weeds), and it suddenly dawned on me that with some amending, we could turn this into the raised vegetable bed we’ve been dreaming of for years. Shortly thereafter, I ran out to a local nursery and carefully selected additional organic vegetables that would grow well in our sunny backyard (and that the kids would enjoy eating): sweet corn, multi-colored beets, dinosaur kale, purple artichokes, and sweet red peppers.

Caleb has proudly taken on the task of watering our vegetable garden several times a week. He seems to really enjoy this responsibility, and together we are watching our little seedlings grow into fruit bearing plants. Sadie plays her part by running her tiny fingers under the hose while Caleb is watering, or keeping us company while playing nearby at her water table.

Now, we sit back and watch our garden grow. Occasionally we’ll add some fertilizer, and I’ll sprinkle the ground with Sluggo, but apart from watering, there isn’t a whole lot we have to do.

I will be following the progression of our “eating” garden in this blog and you can watch our garden grow. We have already started using the herbs in our cooking (just this morning, we added fresh mint to our homemade berry smoothies), but over time, we will be cooking with the vegetables that come out of our garden. I look forward to sharing this magical experiment with you, since it’s such a pleasure for me. I especially look forward to watching our children become more and more familiar with growing their own food, and then getting to enjoy the “fruits” of their labor.

Still, that doesn’t mean I don’t take every opportunity to pick up my hand tools when the occasion arises. Our newly-built raised vegetable bed is a case in point. Last year my lady and I planted a vegetable garden for the first time. Flush with success (we’re convinced that a single zucchini plant could feed the world…or at least our neighborhood), we decided to significantly expand our arable space.

So I poked around the internet for some plans to build a raised bed and settled on this one.

A trip to the local big-box store turned up 6 untreated (treated lumber leaches bad stuff into your food so make sure it’s untreated) cedar 2 x 6s and 1 x 4 by 4 stacked along our fence. The lumber stack mocked me for a couple of weeks as I knocked out assignments in Salt Lake City and D.C.

One overcast Saturday afternoon proved to be the perfect time to assemble the casing. Aflutter with excitement, I grabbed my “new” D-8 Disston cross-cut saw freshly delivered from an eBay seller in Missouri and strolled to the back patio to put it to use.

The carpentry was straightforward. Starting with the 4 x 4, I laid out four lengths of 18″ each to serve as the corner posts. Then I broke a sweat with the Disston cutting them to length. The cut wasn’t perfectly square along the x and y axes, but it was impressively close (impressive to me) considering that a handsaw did the deed.

Hmmmm. Clearly it needed a good sharpening. And when I laid the blade upright along my workbench there was a noticeable concave curve from toe to heel. So the sharpening would need a heavy jointing as well….but not now. Time to get back to work.

Two of the 2 x 6s I cut in half to form the box ends. Holy smoke. The saw jumped around in the kerf like popcorn in a pot as I cut. So to the sharpening and jointing list, I added a serious saw set reduction to address the hippity-hoppity sawing action.

UPDATE: A month later I jointed the saw twice and sharpened three times and there are still faint traces of flats on some of the saw teeth. But it cuts much better and I’ll go with it for now.

With the pieces cut it was time to assemble them. But when I “dry fitted” them on the patio, I noticed that the edges were severely out of joint. So I lugged them to my garage workbench and shed much sweat with my Stanley Bailey #7 to edge joint them. I had never jointed an 8′ long board so it was good practice.

Some of the edges were really out of whack and I didn’t feel the need to have them mate perfectly. Just good enough to keep dirt from seeping out.

The carcass would be assembled using galvanized screws versus nails. The 3 ½” screws would hold much better over time and their added strength would be needed as the box acted as a “retaining wall” of sorts for the soil to be deposited within.

The screws were too long to try and muscle into the wood so I drilled pilot holes for each one. Here’s a shot of my 10″ Craftsman brace…

…which I set aside in favor of my ancient Black and Decker rechargeable drill. Well, it was either that or lose 5 lbs drilling 32 pilot holes by hand. In retrospect, I should have drilled some of the pilot holes this way to gain experience using the brace on a “trash” project. Meaning, a project where the margin of error was very wide and mistakes would go unnoticed.

After assembly, I lugged it over to our chosen location. Then moved it aside to dig up the sprinkler hose beneath it so that it could be relocated outside of the bed area. You see, when I turn my garden area, I have a very nasty habit of puncturing sprinkler hoses. Oh sure, I’ve tried to ignore my errors. But the sink-holes that develop advertise my sloppy work to my frowning girlfriend. And she, with a glance, forces me to fix them anyway. My little ditch-digging foray assures that such a turn of events won’t play out with this garden bed.

After relocating the sprinkler hose I moved the box to its final resting place and placed stakes to hold the frame securely while I removed the grass and tilled the soil beneath. At this point I should have leveled the box, but in the heat of the project, I spaced it.

My lady’s brother supplied his brawn and pickup to ferry in a yard of dirt/compost mix. Bob may be in his 50s, but the man has a P90X workout body that came in handy as he retilled my initial tilling, then wheel barreled in the dirt, then tilled it again.

And here’s the final result, complete with yummy plants growing outside my home office window.

After considering the many possibilities, including making my own and visiting a selection of garden centres for possible raised bed products I stumbled upon the VegTrug.  Although raised bed products and kits aren’t a new idea, the VegTrug seems to have become a popular product in a short amount of time.  The VegTrug is an attractive wooden raised vegetable bed in a range of sizes.  Due to it being raised above the ground, it keeps produce away from slugs and snails.  The British firm behind the VegTrug has also introduced a few innovative ideas, such as an iPhone app, website offering growing ideas, pictures, videos and other relevant content as well as a Twitter feed which I feel adds value to the product and their brand in order to ensure you make full use of the VegTrug and to provide and share new fresh ideas through users contributing their comments.  I decided to use the VegTrug for the basis of my raised vegetable bed, however due to popularity the size I wanted was out of stock.  Therefore, I reserved one and now waiting for new stock to be delivered to the garden centre in the next few weeks.  Due to waiting for the VegTrug to arrive, I have been able to plan my vegetable bed.  The plan so far for the raised vegetable bed is as follows:

A selection of vegetables, salad, herbs and fruit will be grown, initially as listed below.

• Strawberries in one or two corners, due to cascading over the side
• A row of carrots in the middle due to more depth
• Curly kale
• Mint in another corner
• Lettuce or other salad leaves
• Radishes
• Spring onions
• Other possible additions: beetroot, cabbage and potatoes

It will be situated on a paved area and produce will be planted using a mix of seeds and from plants.  Previously I have grown vegetables, herbs such as mint and fruit separately in pots and containers.  However, the VegTrug will allow me to have a dedicated self-contained raised vegetable bed in the garden for growing a selection of homegrown produce.  Other benefits include easy maintenance and weeding as well as watering of the produce due to it being raised and a self-contained area.  It is also versatile as the produce grown can change depending on the seasons and if not required during a particular period could be used for planting flowers and plants as a decorative planter.  I’m excited about the new addition to the garden and can’t wait to install the VegTrug, plant the produce and for the first harvest.  I will post further blog updates and articles, including pictures in order to follow how the raised vegetable bed grows and develops as well as changes through the seasons.

The Six Pack Vegetable Raised Bed

Over the moon about gardening! August saw one of the entries to Sylvia’s Briefs August competition from The Recycle Works win a free 6 pack Vegetable Box/Flowers Raised Bed.

To win there have to be at least 50 entries in the month and it goes to our favourite best picture of your vegetable plot gardening. This month the entries have been so enterprising and the plots have all looked extremely appetising. Some pictures have been really amusing. We always love something that makes us smile! We have had wonderful vines grown round the front door, salads to die for, beans as high as the greenhouse, so many lovely and loving pictures. The award goes to Sam Thomason and he is 3 years old for his picture of his first harvest ever! Only a few carrots and a potato but, as you can see he was over the moon! How straight are those carrots?

It could be your turn next month, so please keep the entries coming. We absolutely love what you do. How about sending a picture of some odd shaped vegetables for September? It is the time of year for ambiguous looking edibles! This competition will go on until the end of September. Send your pictures at any time to sylvia@recycleworks.co.uk . It could be a lot of fun.

Love Your Environment!

After sawing two of the boards in half (to 2″x6″x4′), we predrilled holes in each end of the 8′ boards using a simple template. I held the boards together while Jason drilled the screws into place. First level of the frame is built.

We decided where we wanted the bed and then Jason mowed the grass down low in that spot. Next step, pound the stakes into place and screw the frame to the stakes.

The second tier of the walls can be assembles right on top of the first tier, which is now secured to the ground. First, Jason screwed the corners together, then fastened the top tier into each stake. This prevents the boards from warping and bowing. We hope.

PW doesn’t mention doing this but we like to create a barrier between the yard and the new garden soil so the grass (and WEEDS) don’t grow up through. A layer of black trash bags will do the trick.

Next step: DIRT. We bought up all the top soil that the Home Depot had sitting out – 11 cubic feet. I wanted to get at least 16 cu. ft. so we’d have 6″ of fresh soil. To fill in the other 5 cu. ft. we grabbed a few bags of Moo-Nure fertilizer and one bag of Nature’s Helper which “Saves Water / Retains Moisture” (I have no idea what it is.).

Clever bar code placement.

Jason mixing the cow poo in with the top soil and magic water saving stuff.

Here are our greenhouse frames (cold frames) made from old windows. We also have glass windows to set over the top to seal out the cool air. Hopefully the peeling paint is not toxic…

And here are our finished raised vegetable bed.

It’s our fourth summer at this home and we’re putting the vegetable garden in it’s third location to date. This year we decided to building a raised bed for the first time, 4′ x 8′, roughly following Pioneer Woman’s instructions.

Originally I was thinking of doing a square foot garden – giving us space for 32 plants.

But Jason, my green-thumbed husband, said a square foot is not big enough for some of the things we wanted to grow – especially tomatoes. And we didn’t really need 32 different plants. Plus, we have 2 cold frames made from repurposed windows that we decided to use as greenhouses in the vegetable beds during the early spring months. There’s around 3′x3′.

Here’s the plan we came up with:

We’re starting watermelons, brussel and basil seedlings in the greenhouses for now. The cold frame on the left will be home to: strawberries, red bell peppers and green bell peppers. (We decided not to do chili peppers again this year.) The frame on the right with house: better boy tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, grape roma tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. Between the frames we’re going to try out brussel sprouts for the first time. Along the front of the left frame we’re planting romaine lettuce and along the front of the right frame, arugula.

I’m very excited! We’ve never done strawberries or brussel sprouts or romaine lettuce before. We’re trying sugar baby watermelons this year. Besides this 4′x8′ planter we also have a young peach tree and raspberry bush that we have high hopes for this year.

In case anyone is wondering …

Planted from seed:
sweet basil
sugar baby watermelon
brussel sprouts
romaine lettuce
arugula/rocket

Purchased plants:
strawberries (pictured above)
red bell peppers
green bell peppers
grape roma tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
beefsteak tomatoes
better boy tomatoes