We’ve been wanting to create a raised bed for some time. Most of the time, I’ve done container gardening for my peppers. That’s done well, but the containers are hard to manage sometimes. They also don’t allow the plant to fully spread out, and I’ve had some plants stunted as a result.
After considering several options for our space, we went with a new product from Home Depot that’s basically a block that allows you to connect 2×6 boards into whatever configuration you like. We knew we wanted to go big because we had a large dirt pile to use up. It has been sitting there since we moved in back in 2013, and it was an eye sore. We also had some rock to use up, a very full compost bin, and a number of other resources on hand to help out.
The photos below will give you an idea of the work involved in a project like this, but every situation is different. My friend Kyle didn’t believe we’d have enough soil, when in fact we had some left over for Audra to use on her tomatoes and herbs. We did buy 5 bags of new soil for the bed, but that didn’t require any trucks.
NOTE: Since we straddled pavement with our placement, we made the compromise of rebar on the fence side only. We’ll see how it goes. Also, we added two boards in the middle for extra stabilization.
Addendum: We later added rebar to the pavement side too. With a good sledge hammer it wasn’t difficult to go through the pavement.
