What I Did
I got a wild hair late this spring to make a raised planter bed and fill it entirely with peppers. I didn’t think this would be too tough and sure enough it only took an afternoon start to finish. I’ll take you thorough my process and you’ll see that this is a project even a beginner can tackle.
Wood of your choice // Wood Screws // Power Drill // Miter Saw or Circular Saw // Post Hole Digger // Plants/Soil
How I Did it.
Building this was very easy with the help of a few tools and some basic wood knowledge. I knew I wanted to use cedar for the wood since it holds up well out in the elements. You can also use pressure treated wood if you like, but I didn’t want any of the chemicals to potentially touch the roots of my pepper plants.
I also knew that most wood in hardware stores is 8ft in length. So I thought I would make it easy on my self and just do an 8ft x 4ft bed since those dimensions would make for a nice big bed and more importantly would fit in the area I allotted.
1. I cut 2 of my wood planks in half so that would create 4 – 4ft pieces to be the shorter sides of my planter bed.
2. I cut my 4x4s until I had 6 – 16 inch tall pieces for the legs.
3. I laid 3 of the cut 16inch 4x4s on the ground and placed 2 of the 8ft planks on top of them.
4. I drilled the planks into the 4x4s to make one of the 8ft sides of the planter bed. Then repeated so I had my two 8ft sides completed.
5. Attach the 4ft planks to your two 8ft sides ( you might need a friend to help you hold up the two 8ft sides while you do this step)
6. Bam, you got yourself a raised planter bed.
7. Put the planter bed in the spot where you would like it and push down hard on it so it makes impressions in the soil where you will need to dig.
8. Remove the planter bed and dig far enough down with a post hole digger, shovel or trowel so you can set the planter beds legs into the holes. (Doing this step will keep them from shifting around)
9. Put the planter bed into the holes and fill the soil in around the legs until everything is nice an solid.
10. Go get some soil and plants (I went to Natural Gardener because the soil is great, cheap and they can dump it by the sq yard into the back of your truck if you have one)
11. Shovel the soil into the planter bed and plant your plants.
12. Sit back and have a beer and admire your handy work.
Finished Product
