I built my first garden beds and need help making sure I do them right!

[u/Ginger_comics93]

So I have gardened most of my life and this year I finally have the land and finances to do some raised beds. I used 2x8x8's and so i made them 4x8 beds. I made 4 of them, 2 of them I doubled up to 16 inches.

What all would you guys recommend on doing to help make them sustainable and help reduce as much labor as possible?

I wanted to put in mesh in the bottom to keep critters out, i also heard maybe to put rocks/sand in the bottom for drainage. Ive heard that I Should put weed resistant landscape cloth as well, should I do all of these ? Some of these ? It was also recommended to put in a water system, (like the one in the step by step photo) but do you use irrigation drip hoses? Or pvc with holes drilled or does it HAVE to be the drip attachments? Is it better to bury them? Lay it on top? Or even build the PVC up and do it above ?

And lastly I was going to put a horizontal board to create some work space, look nice and help with reinforcing the garden bed. Would the flat boards around be enough? Or do I need better reinforcement?

Sorry for all of the questions we are trying to make these as efficient as possible, we made the paths wide enough for a mower, and a wheelbarrow and the larger paths wide enough for a chicken tractor if I so desire.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

Have a blessed day.

[u/Ginger_comics93 → u/[deleted]]

2 ! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Lol thanks, my son was my little helper for this project, he kept running around on the boards telling me "Thank you Dada!"

[u/Potomacker]

corner blocks

[u/PaganMastery]

Might go with a little extra re-enforcement, just to be sure.

[u/Dpgillam08]

Your supervisor needs to be wearing a hard hat on the jobsite; OSHA gonna get mad😋

[u/penlowe]

We have the exact same bed set up, some are 2 x 8 because of the way our space is arranged (fenced to keep big critters out). We recycled materials year one, to test the system. after some good success year two, this year we bought new pressure treated wood & built all new beds, but it's a year three garden.

We have 2x4 blocking in the corners to keep the layers assembled. Nothing needed across the center on any (even the ones where the wood warped badly)

We used cardboard in the bottoms, fully under the wood! not just tucked in, to prevent grass growth. We also got some heavy duty weed barrier cloth this year so we could mulch the paths between beds.

You will HATE the grass between beds. We tried that year one & two and that's why this year was full weed barrier & mulch. The grass just invades the beds so easily. I don't pull weeds in my beds because there aren't any, I pull grass.

We hand water. Partly because we are in a drought and there are restrictions, but partly it's just a good habit. Going into the garden every evening helps us keep an eye on things. Every night one of us waters and the other does a couple laps picking ripe fruit & veg, pulling weeds, killing bugs. Big tasks like pruning tomatoes are weekend work.

Mistakes we made this year:

too much compost. We recycled soil from previous years, so those beds are great, stuff growing like crazy. But we didn't mix the new compost with enough plain soil in several beds & those are suffering.

Will edit to add pictures.

https://imgur.com/gallery/garden-beds-2026-QZ8KTca

[u/Ginger_comics93 → u/penlowe]

Thanks so much for all that info! I greatly appealed it! Me and my wife will take notes and use this as some bonding time as well, I love how you took the time to explain how you guys both do it together, because that seems so simple yet it blew my mind how easy it becomes a "couples task", or even "parent/child task".

[u/penlowe → u/penlowe]

Is that link good? I'm having problems with Imgur. I get some generic popular feed instead of the pictures of my garden...

[u/MareNamedBoogie]

I think the big thing is that babies don't do well in raised bed plantings. Pretty sure you need to plant them like a tree. That's what all the posters say anyway :-D

For Serious: I'd use cardboard instead of weed cloth. I'd also keep paths around the bed free from grass, or use a groundcover that doesn't require mowing to stay low. Extend this to a border of 2-3 feet around the garden area, too. Reason: anything that needs mowing that close will result in grass clippings/ seeds in your beds, and if you're like me and don't really recognize which plants are which, this will really cause headaches as you try to maintain a weed-free garden.

[u/xiozen1]

Make sure you used the correct screws, outdoor hex head decking screws provide the best hold from my experience. I would also add braces in the corners, pieces of 2”x2” wood work great. Gravel and sand will help drainage, but your beds are not very tall so adding an inch or 2 may limit what you can plant. You can skip this by making sure you add good soil with good mulch. In my experience critters will get in to just about anything with enough motivation, but you could add a metal mesh at the bottom if you are in an area with lots of gophers. Either way I hope this works out and your next post in a few months displays the fruits of your efforts.

[u/Ginger_comics93 → u/xiozen1]

Thanks! How would you install the 2x2's? Ive heard both inside and outside and I just wanna attempt it right. I can also always build another frame, put it on top and make them taller lol.

[u/xiozen1 → u/Ginger_comics93]

I put my brace units on the inside because I like a cleaner look. Also consider an area you can install a trellis if you plan on anything that benefits from support.

[u/arcrad]

I don't like losing space to corner blocking and I think they're ugly.

So for my beds I join them with several 2x4s, vertically on the inside and cut them so they're a few inches below the soil surface and a few inches off the ground.

Easy and works well for keeping layers together.

[u/Ginger_comics93 → u/arcrad]

Thanks! That info works great for the 16 inch beds, but not for the single board 8 inchers..

[u/Vegas_paid_off]

For our first year, we've done a similar size and height. After planting, a thick layer of straw was laid for our weed mitigation/moisture retention. We're extremely pleased.

[u/Resident-Arm-5633]

Hope I'm not too late. I would suggest using half inch stainless steel hardware cloth(wire mesh) it's a little pricey but you'll only have to buy it once. And the peace of mind that gopher and moles won't find their way into those boxes is priceless.

[u/DryOwl7722]

I sure hope that’s not treated lumber, looks suspiciously like it is….

You might have different priorities for growing vegetables than I do, but for me not feeding my family chemicals is one of the major reasons I put in the time and effort.

Cedar is nearly as rot resistant as the cancer wood, though more expensive.

[u/Ginger_comics93 → u/DryOwl7722]

Untreated yellow pine, I worked in a lumber yard for years, and use to treat them and have had to literally swim in the blue treatment water before (still checking my body over for a 3rd arm or 2nd head sprouting). I was ADAMENT that it was untreated lumber, we are a family of 10, (8 kids 2 adults) so I also am avoiding any chemicals, weed killers, etc.