DIY Raised Garden Bed
In this video I'm showing you how to build a Raised Garden Bed made of cedar, easily picked up at your local home center. It’s a simple build that is great for a beginner DIY project and works in just about any size yard.
Check out the video tutorial above or read below to see how I did it.
Materials and Tools I Used:
Click here to get the free plans:
I’m starting this project with 6, 5/4 Cedar decking boards. They’re 6 inches tall and 8 feet long. I chose cedar because it is rot resistant and great for outdoor projects
And then, I measured and marked so I could make a cut on each board, 3 feet in. My boards are 8 feet long, so this will give me 1 3 foot and 1 5 foot pieces from each board.
The inside braces for this box are going to be made from 1 Cedar 2x4. I cut 4 braces at 16 inches long, which will be the height of my planter box.
If you’re interested in building this Raised Garden Bed yourself, make sure and click HERE for my Free downloadable PDF plans. They’re going to include a material list and a cut list to make this build even easier for you.
To assemble this box I’m going to join the boards with screws. You could totally stop here - but I decided to take mine a step further and recess my screws so I could cover them with a dowel (not at all necessary - just for aesthetics). For this, I grabbed my Pocket Hole drill bit to drill about a half inch in - a great tip I learned from the channel Modern Builds.
This bit is like a 2 in 1. It’s got a small tip that pre-drills for your screw and then a 3/8ths body that drills out the recess. It also has an adjustable stop collar if you’d like to use that.
Then, I staged up a long board, a short board and an inside brace and used 2” screws to attach everything together. You could also incorporate wood glue if you like. Just make sure it’s exterior rated.
I continued by repeating the same steps on all 4 corners, working my way around the box.
And here it is. All put together. 3 feet by 5 feet. Super easy and looks so clean.
The next day was soil delivery day. We got one yard delivered, which gave us enough to fill the box, with a little bit left over for planting some pots. You could also buy bagged soil at your local home center.
We moved the box into its backyard spot so we could start filling it with soil. We used organic gardening soil and loosely filed the planter box, being careful not to pack it in.
At this point we could finally plant our plants :)
You could be done here! However, I want to cut plugs to cover the recessed screws on mine. I’m using this 3/8ths tapered plug cutter. This way I can cut plugs from the same cedar I built with. I loaded it into my drill press and drilled out plugs.
To release them, I made a pass with my band saw and they popped right out. You can also just pop them out using a flat head screwdriver, which is really much easier. An alternative to cutting your own plugs would be to buy a cedar dowel.
To insert the plugs, I used some exterior rated wood glue and knocked them in with a piece of scrap wood and a hammer.
And that’s it!
I love this project. I’ve wanted to build a garden for awhile and now is a great time. It’s a simple build that is great for a beginner DIY and works in just about any size yard.
With it being spring and outdoors on my mind, I’ve got a lot of outdoor projects planned so stay tuned and don’t forget to check out the link below for the Free plans.
For detailed instructions on this DIY Bed Platform, be sure and watch the video. I'd love to see pics of yours if you decide to make your own.
See you on the next project.
You can find me on Instagram @makergray
Click here to get the free plans:
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