Raised Bed Gardening
Building a raised bed for your vegetable or flower garden is a very efficient way to deal with improving soil and containing your garden to protect it from critters. Check out Master Gardening above, if you’d like to order a raised bed that would save you from building one.
If underground gophers or moles and voles are a problem, then begin by placing screening on the ground where you plan to build your bed.
You can build a foot high bed, or if bending down is a problem, you may want to go higher. A higher bed is a little more work, but worth it .
I recommend using pressure treated 2×12s. They come in 6 and 8 foot lengths. I used the 8 foot and cut the end ones in half to create a 4×8 size bed. The lumber yard will usually do this for you. The boards stack very easily and can be fastened at the corners with heavy duty L brackets. Fasten the layers together with flat brackets and screws on the inside, approximately in the middle. Of course, if you only plan to have a 12″ high bed, stacking won’t be necessary.
For the higher beds, 3 boards high will give you a good waist high bed to work in. Of course, this means you need a lot more soil to fill it, which will take more time and effort. The base soil can be any kind, including rocky, which will improve drainage. You may want to actually place a layer of rocks or sand in the bottom. The top 1 foot should be an amended loam (meaning some fertilizer has been mixed in).
Before adding your soil, you may want to line the bed to add to the preservation of the wood. I used a roll of roofing material. It”s easy to roll on the sides and will still drain OK.
Be very sure you like the location of this raised bed, because moving it is not easy. You want to place it where you get at least 6 hours of sun a day. You might want to consider a fence, as well. Especially if you have racoons or deer nearby. They would love to feast on your lovely garden.