Daily Prep Episode 307: How To Start A Raised Bed Garden

For those of you who have been with me since the beginning, you have already seen me attempt 2 summer gardens. This year, I thought I would make a quick video showing how to start a raised bed garden, using what I’ve learned from the last two years.

It started when I was up at my buddy Ben’s place (may know him from his posts or videos on Financial Survivalist), and he offered me some free dirt. Not just any dirt–Mel’s Mix.

1. Get Some Quality Soil. Step #1 is to get some good soil that you can grow in. For those of you who may not be familiar with “Mel’s Mix” soil, it’s a 3-part mixture of vermiculite, compost and peat moss, specifically designed to maximize

a square foot garden. Together, these 3 ingredients ensure that your soil is nutritious, stays loose and broken up, and will retain good amounts of water.

If you’re not going to use a mixture like this, you can also get amazing results from learning to enhance your soil with nutrient rich compost from your organic waste, such as grass clippings and vegetable pieces.

If you are going to use a mixture like Mel’s, the only downside is that it can be quite expensive. So when Ben offered me a couple cubic yards for free, I had to jump on it!

I first had to get the soil from Ben’s place to mine. Its roughly 20 miles, and since I don’t have a truck, I had to get it all in my Toyota Camry! haha Together, he and I shoveled it into boxes and lifted it into the trunk and back seat of my car. Some of the boxes were close to 200 pounds, so it was definitely a 2-man job.

2. Build Some Boxes (don’t have to be fancy!). The next step is to create the box (or boxes if you’re doing multiple). On the way home, I grabbed a couple rough cut 2×8′s from Home Depot and some weed barrier. I bought (2) 10-foot long 2×8′s, and had them saw 2 feet off each piece.

I was now left with perfectly dimensioned pieces for an 8 foot by 2 foot box. I probably put the box together in the least fancy way possible–just nailed it together on the 4 corners, and then stapled the weed barrier on.

After that was put together, I roped my upstairs landlord into helping me carry my soil from the Camry to the box in the back, and was finally ready to plant.

3. Planting your seeds and seedlings. I divided up the new boxes into square foot sections (there were 16 of them), and referred to the “blueprint” I hastily sketched out of which veggies were to be planted where.

Almost all the veggies I am planting like as much sun as they can get, so one thing I did to try to facilitate this, was to plant the shortest plants on the south end of the boxes, and the tallest plants on the north end of the boxes, so that no plants would be overly “hidden in the shadows.”

4. Give it a good watering!!! The last step in starting my raised bed garden was to give everything a good watering. Pre-soaking your soil  ahead of time, and then watering right after you plant ensures that your seeds and seedlings will have the best possible chance of getting situated in their new home.

I’m excited about trying to do things better this year. I’m already getting a 2 month earlier start than either of my last 2 seasons, and I’m planning to keep a much more watchful eye on the watering this time around as well.

Another thing I’m doing this year is companion planting my vegetables with Marigolds, to see if I can attract the right kind of bugs.

There will be many more garden updates to follow this season, but for now, we’re officially off!

Love to hear what your plans are for gardening this year! Any new veggies? New location or methods? Let me know how it’s coming!

Prep On,

-Dan

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