We are finally finally starting our garden! We’ve talked about having one since our first house over 7 years ago and have never made the time to actually commit due to being so busy renovating. After seeing the fruits of our labor with the patio and shed last year, I think we realized how much we enjoy a nice exterior space and it pushed us to finally go ahead with this project.

Material List:

• Wood of your choosing (you can create beds any size you’d like. We decided on 3x16 for the four center beds (I wanted them to mimic the shed length and 3ft makes for easy reaching)

• Decking screws

• Organic 100% tung oil

• Landscape fabric

We did a lot of researching before landing on how we moved forward and I want to preface with: follow at your own risk LOL. We are very beginner gardeners and we are expecting failure.

In a perfect world we would’ve bought beautiful cedar boards for our beds; but due to the insane price of lumber right now that was literally just not an option. We went with untreated pine and used organic Tung oil to hopefully preserve them as long as possible. From what we’ve learned/people we’ve spoken to, anywhere from 2-10 years depending on climate is normal.

Our goal aesthetic wise is very European potager inspired; close to our kitchen/right off the house, companion planting full of vegetables, herbs and flowers mixed. The area that we chose was pretty unlevel and again, due to costs we didn’t grade the ground (we should’ve). We found the highest spot of our ground and built our first bed there. We built the rest to match that one with a level, using temporary braces with 2x4s and added wood on the inside for the footing to hold it. Bobby prefers using screws instead of nails, that way it’s easier to pull apart should a board go bad or need replacing rather than having to pry. We did the first layer of every bed initially to make sure they all lined up, then built the second layer on top and last added in sections of 2x4s throughout the inside for bracing.

We both agree that if we we’re doing this over we would’ve graded, it would’ve saved a lot of time and tedious work.

This is the tung oil we used - all natural and food safe which is very different from a traditional tung oil that we’ve used for interior furniture. We brushed on one thick coat over every surface once constructed; but I think it would have been easier to do this pre building. (We attempted to spray it on, it was way too thick.)

For filling the beds - due to the unlevel ground some were much deeper than others. We thankfully had logs leftover from the land clearing and filled some of the deeper ones with these to fill space + save cost on dirt. We did a leaf compost on the bottom layer of all the beds, and then 50/50 compost and top soil to fill the remaining.

The leaf compost doubles as a dog bed too, apparently.

That’s it! They’re ready for plants