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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

How To Start A Weed Free Raised Garden Bed

To start off you will need something to use as a retaining wall for your garden bed. I had some leftover wood from a wood pallet and some 4x4's from our deck project.
Next you will need a supply of cardboard or newspaper. Earlier this year I started saving pizza boxes, soda cartons and other boxes from purchases.
Now decide where and how big you want your raised bed. Then lay out your cardboard flat right over the grass. I overlapped the cardboard just a little. I have been told the grass will die under the cardboard or newspaper. The cardboard will break down into the soil as the summer goes on.
Next lay out your wood or other material to help retain the soil. Cinder blocks would work just as well in this instance. 
Now fill the inside with about twelve inches of soil, peat-moss and other soil amendments. I added 14 bags of organic soil and two large bags of peat-moss. 
At this point I had my husband put some stakes around the out side of the garden bed. This will stop the heavy soil from pushing the 4x4's outward. 
I then added my started vegetables
I am looking forward to keeping a record of how my vegetables do in my garden planner. This is the first time I am trying this new raised bed method. I have been thinking that I probably should have put the raised bed together in the fall so it could have sat over the winter. The cardboard would have been nearly decomposed by spring. No matter now I will keep you informed how this method works for me. What do you think? Do you think it will remain weed free for this summer at least? Have you planted a garden this year? Do you use a raised bed method? 

28 comments:

  1. I pinned this Bonnie - that is so cool. I am going to do this one day! Awesome. sandie

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  2. Good Luck with your garden... We tried newspapers once and the chipmunks dug tunnels --and we had newspaper all over the place.. Maybe it will work better with heavy cardboard. Keep us posted.

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  3. I'm going to try this, we have been planting in the ground today but I've always wanted a raised bed. I never knew this about the cardboard but I can't wait to start saving mine to give it a try. Thank you so much for sharing.

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  4. Well you sure got a good start at it being weed free. Hope it works.... if it does, next year I am doing this.

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  5. This is great. I hate the weeding part!

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  6. :( no garden for me this year. Just didn't get around to it. I think you are a smart gardener. This looks weed proof and I can just see all the wonderful goodies that you are going to reap. I'm sure gonna miss my home grown tomatoes....
    Have fun and enjoy

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  7. Raised gardening is my favorite way to garden. I plan on adding raised strawberry beds next year. We're harvesting spinach, kale, beet tops, radishes, and lettuce. Our radishes turned out hard and not very good - any suggestions on why?

    Just wanted to add - if you get the cardboard wet before covering with soil it helps breaking down faster and allows root vegs to penetrate easier.

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    1. I will keep that in mind next year when I add a few more beds.

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  8. I haven't tried a raised bed but will keep this in mind next year when I do.

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  9. You know what.. I do newspaper over all my containers in the fall and then when spring comes,... I have no weeds to start planting in the spring. I haven't tried the cardboard but that is my next step. Thanks Bonnie.

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  10. I just had to pin this! I will have a garden (my first one in the US) in 7 days and I plan on doing a lot to make it look nicer and also grow things. This will help me so much!

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  11. I've never planted a garden. I'm not good at those things, everything I plant seems to wither and die. Hoping to hear that it stayed entirely weed free.

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  12. We use newspaper, cardboard and shredded junk mail in our compost all winter this helps our garden the following year.
    So how did you do?

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  13. What a fantastic idea - I really worry about weeds as I'm not that great at digging. I really hope your plans go brilliantly :) x

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  14. I hope your garden grows great! My husband and I want to grow a garden, but I hate getting dirty and dealing with the Florida heat. I look forward to hearing how your garden grows!!

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  15. Awesome! I hope it grows well for you :) We have a ton of issues with weeds here!

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  16. I love this too! I hope you update us on how your garden did this summer. Did you get lots of good things?

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  17. I love this idea! I don't have a garden where I live now but I hope to have one when we settle in our forever home. I hope you have a lot of success with your garden.

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  18. I'm sure this post will save people a lot of money. My understanding is that the products you purchase are very expensive to keep weeds out of gardens so doing it yourself with household items can save a lot of money.

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  19. Wow this is really cool. I don't have a garden I could try this in but when I get my own house I will definitely be giving this a try. I will definitely be reading up on the updates. :)

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  20. Ohhhh man. I can't wait to have a house. This is such a great project, I do hope your veggies grow big and strong and TASTY! =D

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  21. We have used newspaper to block weeds for a while. Never thought of cardboard. I think it is a great idea and I can't wait to see what your garden produces!

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  22. I don't have a garden, but my mother does and so do a few of our neighbors. I will have to suggest this to them!

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  23. We are renting so I am confined to container gardening for now. I'll have to remember this when we finally move to our dream house though.

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  24. That is pretty awesome! I would of never thought of that!!!

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  25. I want to try this for our garden at work. I thought I would try your page first because I remembered this post but couldn't remember exactly how to do it. I am hard at work researching this so I cam write a proposal to my boss. I also am wondering if this will work with rocky soil/sand. We want to make raised beds in our garden and plant grass seed between the boxes. I have a picture in my mind and it will look so beautiful if they let me do it. Tavin http://tootsabellarose.blogspot.com/

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  26. You know your projects stand out of the herd. There is something special about them. It seems to me all of them are really brilliant! online

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