Grow Your Own – Boxing Day (Part 1)
by John Weckerle
Editor’s note: Our design is an adaptation of that shown in Mel Bartholemew’s The New Square Foot Gardening. This is an easy-to-read and informative book on raised bed gardening, and we highly recommend it. Our principal adaptation is the height of the box, which is twice that of Mr. Bartholemew’s design. He considers this unnecessary, but given our often dry and windy climate, we like the idea of a slightly greater rooting depth and more soil to retain moisture. This project took far less than an hour to build.
Unlike the British, Canadians, and other Commonwealth countries, we don’t celebrate Boxing Day on or about December 26; here at New Mexico Central headquarters, we celebrate it whenever we build a new box to plant vegetables in. Well, yesterday we celebrated Boxing Day, building our third 4 foot-square by one foot-high bed. Today, we’ll walk you through the process of building the box; in Part 2, we’ll discuss our next experiment in critter strategy. Of course, you can always come up with your own designs to keep the wildlife from sampling your bounty.
To build the bed, you’ll need the following:
- Two eight-foot 2″ x 12″ boards, cut in half (Home Depot cuts them in half for free. Lowe’s doesn’t have the equipment to do so. As I recall, Hunter Lumber also cuts lumber to size, but check with them first).
- 12 deck screws (I use 8 x 3 inch)
- Drill and 1/8-inch bit
- Screwdriver (or screwdriver bit for the drill) – Deck screw head (probably an #3 in your bit collection, but size it to the screw you’re using)
- Chicken wire
- Weed barrier
- Stapler
- Wire cutters or tin snips
Drill three holes in one end of each board, as shown. You’ll only need holes on one end because you will be “staggering” the corner joints so as to get a perfectly square box (see diagram).
Next, begin assembling the box. On a flat surface such as a garage floor or deck (but be careful on decks, lest your screws, drill bits, etc. disappear between the boards!), arrange your boards bottom side up. Butt the end of one board against the screw holes on another, and use your drill to make a matching hole in the end of the board into which the screw will protrude.
Screw the boards together, and repeat for the other three corners.
Next, roll the weed barrier over the frame, and fasten with a few staples at each end. I find it easiest to cut the cloth after I’ve fastened it; the roll provides a weight at one end that keeps the breeze from moving it around. Then do the same with the chicken wire; again, cutting after stapling keeps the wire from moving around while you’re trying to attach it.
Why chicken wire? Because there are other things than weeds that can come up through the bottom of your bed – namely, gophers. The chicken wire is there to hold them at bay. If you don’t have gophers (Everybody who doesn’t have gophers near their garden raise their hands. Nobody? Didn’t think so.) you can skip the chicken wire.
Your box is built! You can now apply paint, wood preservative, etc., but only to the outside of the box; you don’t want chemicals leaching into your soil and thus possibly into your vegetables.
One Response “Grow Your Own – Boxing Day (Part 1)”
“(Everybody who doesn’t have gophers near their garden raise their hands…”
My garden beds are near the shop/garage building, where the cats hang out. Within a couple years all the gopher diggings disappeared. Ya s’pose there’s a connection? Squirrels are pretty rare too.