Building a Square Foot Garden (Wood)
This spring my friend Tara and I tackled this project together. Here’s a list of materials and costs:
- wood (two 16′ 2×10 boards, one 8′ 2×10 board-$31 total)
- 16 corner brackets ($.56 each, $9)
- wood stain (1 can from the “oops” pile-$5)
- screws ($5)
- miscellaneous parts ($3)
- weed mat (free)
- kite string (free)
- 1 bale peat moss ($8)
- 1 bag perlite ($13)
- 3 bags chicken compost ($11)
- 11 bags steer compost ($15)
- 6 gallon bucket of coffee grounds (free)
Total Cost: $100
Tools and equipment:
- electric drill
- scissors
- shovel
- gloves
- paintbrush
First, of course, we made a plan. We visited the site and decided where to put the boxes and how big they should be. Since we were building against a fence, we made them only two feet deep (as far as it’s comfortable to reach). One box was 7′, the other 9′. Then we made a shopping list, and it was off to Home Depot and Wal-Mart.
We made a bit of a mistake at HD-we allowed the store employee to pick our boards for us (they were heavy!). But they turned out to be bent and warped. This was a pain later on. Take the time to select really flat, straight wood. Look for splits and knots. It seemed that it was easier to get shorter boards that were straight–the 16 footers all seemed problematic.
Since we knew the exact lengths we needed, we had the HD employee to cut the wood right there. We had him cut the two 16′ boards into 9′ and 7′, and the 8′ board into 2′ sections (four of them).
We lay the boards on a flat surface (patio) and screwed the corner brackets on the insides. At first we drilled pilot holes, but soon decided it was not necessary. We used two brackets per corner, and secured one in each corner, squared it up, then screwed in the rest.
Upon the advice of the guy at HD, we bought stain and stained the boxes. We were lucky to get a cheap can of stain in the “oops” pile, but in the end we really liked the color. We propped it up so we could get the sides, bottom, and top.
One of us stained, while the other prepped the area. We had to pull some weeds, plants, and move a sprinkler head. Then we lay down the weed mat, and put our boxes in place.
Instead of combining the Mel’s Mix on a tarp, we just mixed it in the box. This was much easier than with vinyl boxes because the wood is sturdier and won’t pop apart. We started with a layer of compost (some chicken, some steer) then added peat moss and mixed it up. We found it necessary to use our hands because the peat tends to clump otherwise. Then we added perlite (a cheaper option than vermiculite), mixed again, and then more compost on the top, along with the coffee grounds.
Finally, we drilled screws into the tops at 12″ intervals to divide the gardens into squares. We used kite string–it is made of nylon but it’s strong and thin. I tied on the ends, but just wound around the screws in the middle. If you look close you can see how I did it:
2—-3 6—-7
1 4—-5 8
Voila! Square foot gardens for $100 in 6 hours!
Hi
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Hi,
Where did you get the coffee grounds, and what are they used for? I have never heard of that before. Thanks!
So where do you get your coffee grounds? I heard this is really good for raspberries.
My husband just build me some great beds too. We made them out of Cherry rounds from Home Depot. Then we made a lap joint with the wood and then drove metal stakes into each connection. We stacked three high. I’ll have to get a picture of them and send you a picture just for anyone interested. The supplies were also very inexpensive. The wood was already stained so that is a bonus as well.
You can get lots of coffee grounds for free at local coffee shops. Sometimes StarBucks even packs them up in the bags the coffee came in. They are a natural source of nitrogen to fertilize your garden, and I love the way they smell!
Thanks, I bought wood and was stuck what to do next. Your timing was perfect. I didn’t think to stain them, but I bet that will help the wood last longer, love your oops color! Great job!
to keep it all a bit healthier, avoid pressure treated wood and petroleum stains. I saw in another site a recommendation to use Linseed Oil, to keep natural wood from rotting too quickly. It too just a few minutes to cover our 2×12’s and maybe we’ll get a few more years out of the wood. I’d also recommend using a naturally rot resistant wood, like cedar, but alas Home Depot (our closest wood dealer), isn’t a mecca for anything but plain or pressure treated – it’s all about the volume of sales, not the quality. And finding straight, small knot, unsplit wood at HD, can be a challenge too. Of course if money is no object they do have oak or poplar, but several dollars a foot didn’t fit our budget for wood laying in dirt.
I love love love your site! I’m getting a group of my friends addicted to this stuff!! We love it!
Quick question? How did you get your kite string, and mesh matt for free?
I’m looking at building my own in the fall (as I’ve already started my own garden…and will be converting that garden space into grass space next year, and will be doing squarefoot gardening next season) if that makes any sense?
HI!
Where I plan to build my garden isn’t anywhere near a fence/wall. Is it bad to have a garden that is totally open to wind and the elements?
It’s not a bad idea, unless you have a lot of wind that will stress your plants out. If you do, you’ll want to build some sort of a wind-break for your garden. I think traditional (plant in the dirt) gardens fare better on this. Raised garden beds, including square foot gardening, puts plants up higher and uses a soil that is less compact, so the plants are more likely to be negatively impacted by the wind.
But, for reference, I think I might live in the windiest place in Utah, and my garden grows just fine.
Hello,
I’m a first time gardener…I’m planning a couple of boxes just like these sice they are going right against my fence. Do you have any tips, recommendations and/or pictures on this particular garden. I’m really curious to know what you planted and how it all turned out. I would love to plant, Roma tomatoes, Serrano peppers, cucumbers, onions, watermelon, green beans, strawberries, herbs… Thank you!!
I am a first -time gardener about to build my garden. About “prepping the area,” it looked like this was installed in an area that was already a garden and not grass. To put a garden over lawn, do I need to take up the grass first? If so, is any additional prep required? Or can I just lay down some newspaper as a barrier over the grass and put the garden on top of it? Which makes me wonder if plants will be able to grow more than 8″ deep, or if they even do grow that deep.
Thanks for the great site!
I had grass in the area where I put my garden beds. I dug up the grass, put down weed mat, and then set my gardens on top. It’s true that my roots don’t go down to the actual dirt, but since I have 12″ of soil I don’t worry about that. And amazingly, I have tons of earthworms. How they get in and why they don’t freeze, I don’t know. But every year I have more!
Another option is to just put down weed mat or newspaper and plop down your gardens. Theoretically, this will kill the grass by not giving it any sunlight. But grass is like a weed–it is very resilient and seems to grow where you don’t necessarily want it (around trees, between sidewalks, etc.). If you want to do less work and you’re willing to risk grass growing in your garden, this is what I would do. If the grass is a big problem you can always take up the beds and dig it out next year.
Hello,
I’m a first time gardener…I’m planning a couple of boxes just like these sice they are going right against my fence. Do you have any tips, recommendations and/or pictures on this particular garden. I’m really curious to know what you planted and how it all turned out. I would love to plant, Roma tomatoes, Serrano peppers, cucumbers, onions, watermelon, green beans, strawberries, herbs… Thank you!!
I had great luck just using a heavy cardboard box on a no-dig bed I put in last year. Laid down the cardboard right on the lawn (which was a mixture of grass and weeds), used boards for an edge, put in about 2″ of compost from an old leaf bin, and planted. I had to pull back the mulch/compost and cut holes in the cardboard to plant the tomatoes, but it worked great. Nothing grew through, the cardboard decomposed and this year I turned the soil on the whole bed. The only grass I got came under the edges, and a raised bed would probably solve that. I don’t think newspaper by itself would be a thick enough barrier, but the cardboard was from an appliance box and worked fine.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any follow up pictures. My main suggestions are to check out the plant spacing and companion planting information as you decide where to put things.
We built our boxes had the soil ready to go last fall and never got plants into it. We are ready to place plants into our small plot and I just saw on yours and another website that pressure treated is not good. What shoudl I do? I so wanting to get the plants in especially after we bought and put it all together. Is there a way to prevent any contamination, if there is any? It now has weathered since last fall. Thank you so much. I was planning on planting this week.
Teresa,
I did a quick google search and found these articles: http://www.gardeningblog.net/2009/04/12/using-pressure-treated-lumber-in-raised-garden-beds/
http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/are-pressure-treated-woods-safe-in-garden-beds.aspx