GRuB > Kitchen Garden Project > Build Your Own Garden

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Intro -- The Things You'll Need
Building the Frames
Filling the Beds
Building the Trellis
Finishing Up

This manual is dedicated to the many wonderful kitchen gardeners I met while working on the Kitchen Garden Project - those beautiful souls who illuminated our lives with their enthusiasm and gratitude; to the many kind volunteers who came out with us to help build gardens - those thoughtful folks who gave their time and energy to help build the change they believe in; and to everyone at Garden-Raised Bounty who made this such an enjoyable and enriching internship - those compassionate and empowering people who have taught me how much a little collective creativity and kindness - and some good home-grown food - can change our perspectives, our health, our community, and our world. All these people had a tremendously positive impact on my life, and I sincerely thank them for all the ways they influenced the path of my life. Their kind spirits will be with me always. -- AV, June 2004

WOOD: For each garden bed you build, you should have four boards, preferably 2 in. by 8 in. (2" x 8" s). You should have two different pairs of boards that are each the same length. For example, the Kitchen Garden Project uses one pair of 10 ft. boards and another pair of 4 ft. boards, making the beds 10ft. by 4 ft., but any lengths will do as long as they make a perfect rectangle or square. KGP uses wood from Douglas Fir trees for all its beds. Cedar would be ideal because it holds up in the wet weather better, but it is more expensive.; If you want to build a trellis, you will need some smaller pieces of wood, preferably 2" x 2" s. For each trellis you build, (on which you can grow peas, beans, cucumbers - anything that grows on vines) you will want four 2" x 2" s, preferably 8 ft. long.

NAILS: You'll want some good, strong nails that won't bend too easily if you don't hit them at the perfect angle. KGP uses 4 in. nails, which is probably the minimum length you will want to use. 6 in. nails would work okay too, but anything longer than that might be too long. For each corner of the frame you will probably want to use at least three nails, so you'll need twelve nails for each frame.

HAMMER: A nice heavy carpenter's hammer will make it a lot easier to drive the nails through the wood.

CARDBOARD OR LANDSCAPE CLOTH: Many people prefer to put down cardboard or landscape cloth material on the ground before they dump the soil into the garden beds. This is done to make sure that the existing grass and/or weeds that the beds are being placed upon won't grow up through the garden soil.

SOIL: KGP gets 'Garden Mix' from Great Western Supply, located in Tumwater on Old Highway 99. As the name suggests, this mix is ideal for growing gardens: it is composed of two-thirds mushroom compost that comes from Ostrom's Mushroom Farm, and one-third topsoil. It's stinky at first, but your plants will love it. For each set of three 10' x 4' beds we build, we use roughly 3 cubic yards of soil, which comes out to about 1 cubic yard per bed. The Garden Mix costs $12.49 per cubic yard.

TRUCK: You'll have to get the soil from the supply yard to your home somehow, and the best way to do that is, of course, with a pickup truck. If you don't have access to one, supply yards usually deliver, but this costs more. Ask a friend if you can use their truck.

SHOVEL AND RAKE: You'll need at least one shovel to move the soil. The rake is used to break up clumps and spread the soil out to evenly fill up the beds.

WHEELBARROW, TAPE MEASURE, PENCIL, & SAW: Unless you can back the truck right up to your garden beds, you are going to need at least one wheelbarrow to move the soil from the truck to your beds. If you are building a trellis and/or have any sawing to do, you will need a tape measure, and if you're doing any measuring you will need a pencil to mark off your lengths. If you're building a trellis, you will probably need a saw to cut two of the 2"X 2"s so that the trellis isn't taller than you can reach.

TWINE AND SCISSORS: You'll need a roll of twine to string up and down your trellis and a pair of scissors to cut it with when you're done. The twine is what your plants will cling to as they grow up towards the sun.

Photo of KGP builders arranging the frame on the ground.

Find a flat, level surface that you can lay the boards on as you nail them together to make the frames for the garden beds. Sometimes this type of surface isn't always at hand, so you can use whatever you might have lying around to prop up the boards so they are level with each other. You could use a spare piece of wood, a rock, a glove, or even a friend to hold it in place.

Photo of KGP builders nailing the frames together.

Nail the boards together. Nail them so that the corners alternate. For example, start by nailing the shorter board onto the end of the long one, so that the end of the long board is covered by the shorter board. The other end of the short board should be covered by the end of the long board. When the bed is complete, each of the four boards should have one end exposed and the other end covered by the board that is nailed perpendicular to it. It's best to put at least three nails into each corner. Complete this step until all your beds are built.

Photo of KGP builders placing the bed frames in the garden.

Get a friend to help you place the frames of the beds in the spots you want them. Make sure that they are in a spot in your yard that gets a lot of sunlight. You'll probably want to place them about 2 ft. apart from each other, leaving enough room so that you can comfortably fit between them as you tend to your plants, and also enough room so that a lawnmower or weed-whacker can fit through. Some folks (particularly older folks) prefer to have their garden beds stacked on top of each other, two, or sometimes even three beds tall. This makes the surface of the soil higher off the ground so that folks don't have to bend down so far to tend to their garden, also making it accessible to wheelchairs and people who want to sit down as they tend their garden.

Photo of KGP builders unloading soil from the back of a truck.

Before you start moving the soil into your beds, lay down the cardboard or landscaping cloth material to prevent the existing grass and/or weeds from growing up through the soil. Make sure to cover the entire area of the bed. You can even lay down a couple layers if you wish. Once your cardboard or covering is down, you can start moving the soil into the beds. If the space you're building the gardens permits it, you can just back your truck full of soil right up to the beds and shovel it in from there.

Photo of KGP builders filling a wheelbarrow with soil.

However, much of the time, gardens are not accessible by truck, and the soil must be shoveled into a wheelbarrow, rolled over to the garden beds, and dumped in. If you're building more than one bed, you will probably first want to fill all the beds with dirt as high as the top of your frames. Fill them to this height at first just to make sure that all beds will have an ample amount of soil. Hopefully, after you've done this you will have soil left over. Once you know you have enough soil to fill all the beds to this point, distribute the rest of the soil evenly among your beds.

Photo of KGP builders unloading soil from a wheelbarrow.

The ideal bed would be filled with soil that it heaps up above the frames, somewhere around 4 to 6 inches above the frame. There will still be many air pockets in the soil immediately after you fill your beds, and over the next several days the soil will settle quite a bit, especially if it rains. Take your rake, or your hands if necessary, and break up the big chunks of soil so that your plants don't have to try and grow around and/or through them.

Photo of finished beds filled with soil.

You should let the soil sit for about a week before you plant anything, allowing the soil both to settle, and also to cool. Compost is quite warm relative to the temperature of the ground, and allowing the topsoil/compost blend to cool before planting anything is very important - if its still too hot it could burn the seeds or the roots of your transplanted starts.

If you are also building a trellis, you should first start by comparing the length of your four 2" x 2" s. Most pieces that are supposed to be a certain length tend to vary from each other by an inch or so. Find the two that are closest in length to each other and set those aside for now - those will be the horizontal pieces. As for the other two pieces, which will be your vertical pieces, find the end on each piece that is closest to a right (90 degree) angle on all sides. These ends will point upwards toward the sky. It's important to find the sides closest to a right angle so that your top horizontal piece will sit flat atop both vertical pieces.

Photo of KGP builder sawing wood for the trellis.

Take your tape measure and, starting at the end that will point upwards, measure six feet down each of the vertical pieces, mark it with your pencil and then saw it off at six feet. Your trellis doesn't have to be six feet tall - it could be eight feet, it could be five feet - but it is probably best if it is short enough so that you can both nail the top piece down and also tend to your vines at the top of the trellis. It should be short enough so that you can comfortably reach the top.

Now you need to decide - if you haven't already - which bed you want to attach the trellis to. Its best if the trellis doesn't cast a shadow on your garden beds, allowing for the maximum amount of sunlight to reach your plants. If your garden beds are running east-to-west lengthwise, the best place to put the trellis is on the north side of your northern-most bed. If your beds run north-to-south lengthwise, try to figure out which side of your garden will get the most sun. For example, if you have a tree to the east of your garden beds, and nothing significant that will block the sun to the west of your beds, you should put the trellis on the east side, allowing it to get the afternoon sun from the west. Likewise, if something that will cast a shadow on your beds stands to the west, you should put your trellis on the west side so it can catch the morning sun from the east.

Photo of first vertical trellis piece attached to bed.

On the outside of the long side of the bed you're building the trellis on, measure 2 ft. from each end and mark it with your pencil. These spots are where you will nail your 6 ft. vertical pieces. You might want a friend to help you hold the wood in place as you nail. Drive one nail into the side of the bed, and then step back, or have your friend step back, and adjust the angle of the board so that it is as close to perpendicular with the ground as possible. When it is, then drive the second nail through. Repeat this step on the other end of the bed for the other vertical piece.

Photo of two vertical trellis pieces with top crossbar.

Once both vertical pieces are nailed onto the bed, now you can nail the horizontal pieces onto them. We usually start with the top one. To make sure that the nails go through the top piece easily, you might want to start pounding both the nails (one nail being pounded into each vertical piece) through the top piece while it's laying on the garden-bed frame, so that you can measure the spacing of the nails, making sure that on each end of the piece there is an equal length of board sticking out past each vertical piece. Pound the nails until it has almost come through the bottom. This helps you by getting the most difficult part of the pounding done in an easier position than standing on your tip-toes. Then place the board on top of the vertical pieces, lining it up, and pound the nails the rest of the way through into the vertical pieces. The top horizontal piece has a tendency to shimmy out of line as you nail it, so you might want to have a friend hold it down for you.

Photo of bottom crosspiece being nailed to trellis.

Now you can nail the bottom horizontal piece to the vertical pieces. Like with the top piece, make sure that on each side there is an equal length of board sticking out past each vertical piece. You'll need to nail the bottom piece high enough so that your roll of twine can fit between it and the top of your garden bed, so get your role of twine and see how much room you need. You'll probably need a friend to help you hold the wood in place as you nail. Repeat this step for the other side so that the bottom horizontal piece is parallel with both the top piece and the side of the bed.

Photo of twine being strung across trellis.

Now you can string the twine around both the horizontal pieces. Take the role of twine and tie the end of the strand onto the end of the bottom horizontal piece. Once it is tied, unroll the twine and wrap it around the horizontal pieces, going up and down and moving down the length of the trellis, spacing them about 4 to 8 inches apart, to your preference. Try to leave as little slack in the twine as you can, making it as tight as possible, but without putting too much stress on the structure. When you get to the end of the trellis, cut the twine so that you'll have enough excess so you can tie a knot around the horizontal piece you end up at. Once the knot is tied, cut off the excess twine.

There: your trellis -- and your garden -- is finished!

Photo of KGP builder raking dirt clumps out of a finished garden bed.

During the time when you're dumping the soil into the beds and building the trellis, the boards of your frame and trellis might shift and move apart from each other a little, so it doesn't hurt to go around with your hammer and pound together any boards that may have moved apart from each other. Take your rake and move the soil so that it is spread out evenly across your beds. You can also take this time to break up any big chunks of soil with your rake. Remember, when those chunks dry out, they will be even harder to break up, so you'll want to do it now.

If you like to leave a neat worksite, you can pick up any soil that might have fallen onto the ground with your rake and shovel, and also sweep all the soil off the top of your frames and into the beds. Gather up all your tools, and then sit back and soak in the sight of your beautiful garden beds that will soon be bursting with life.