DIY Garden Boxes: A few years ago I built a garden box that was a six foot square.  We had a small yard, and I wanted a small garden to match.  This six foot square garden was made from treated 1×6’s.  It met our needs. The only problem was that we found it was difficult to weed the middle without compacting the garden soil.

My 2013 DIY Garden Boxes

From the experience in my own past, I decided to make four 2’x2′ garden boxes at my new house.  This instead of a single, larger garden.  I really like garden boxes because it is easy to mow around the garden with such set borders, like the 2×6 treated lumber I used for this project.

I’ve been prepping the land for a garden for a few weeks now.  I started by doing some stump removal. Click here to learn how to remove a stump.

Click to view the garden box design image in full size.

I started this project by purchasing four 2″x6″x8′ pieces of treated lumber.  Since I decided on 2′ square DIY garden boxes, I cut each board into four equal pieces, and attached them with 3″ stainless steel screws. (See the image to the right for a simple illustration of the garden box design I made.)

Once I assembled the four garden boxes, I laid them out in the place I wanted them.  I decided on a square pattern as opposed to a line.

I spaced them 3′ apart so I could get my push mower between them.  At my old house, I made the mistake of putting the box garden too close to the property line.  When I put in the fence, there was no longer room to mow between the garden and the fence.  This time I allowed for 3′ between each box garden and 5′ from the property line on one side.  I allowed for 10′ from the north property line, as I have plans for a couple of fruit trees in the corner of the lot.

After laying the garden boxes out the way I liked them, I dug out the sod and topsoil and made sure the boxes were level.  I bought bagged garden soil to fill the boxes, as the soil in my yard is very sandy, and doesn’t retain moisture well. I filled the garden boxes with the soil.

This year we will be growing sweet corn, broccoli, green peppers, and pumpkins.  My kids also have a tomato plant and a sunflower plant from school.  A very handy garden indeed!

Here are a few photos from this DIY garden boxes project so far:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Material I used for my DIY garden boxes: (to make 4 boxes)

• 4 – 2x6x8 treated boards
• 48 – 3″ stainless steel screws
• 6 – 1.5 cubic foot bags of garden soil.

Tools I used for my DIY garden boxes.

• Chop saw / compound miter saw
• Drill
• #2 Square Recess Bits
• Shovel
• Rake
• Stanley Knife