Raised bed

I started work yesterday creating a raised bed for growing veggies. The reason behind the raised bed is my frustration at the heavy clay nature of the soil. You could literally grab and handful and throw a pot with it. I decided to raise the area a little so I could introduce a top layer of compost with a nice rakeable tilth.

I initially dug the area over and added plenty of manure/compost. I bought some exterior 2x4 boards and some battens a while ago which I used for the job. I bought some decking screws to hold everything together.

I only needed three sides because the raised bed was to abutt the garden wall. I measured up and proceeded to cut three lengths of wood. I screwed the first two together and ended up breaking the screw. So with the next one I pre-drilled the hole. I put two screws in each side and then lay the frame next to the wall.

The next step was to ensure that the frame was flat. My garden is on a slope so I had fun and games digging out one side so that the whole structure was sitting level.

Once I was happy with the placement I took the four battens and cut each one into a point. I then hammered these into the ground at each inside corner of the frame. A couple at the back would only go down halfway, due to the concrete under the posts holding the retaining wall up. I sawed the tops of these and then screwed each batten to the frame. In hindsight chunkier square posts would have been stronger but we'll see how long these last.

The final satisfying chore was to dig over the soil and then add a nice top layer of compost.

Tonight I will plant my runner beans :-).