DIY: A FREE Raised Garden Bed!

We’re sharing our FREE DIY Raised Garden Bed, including all the materials and exact plans we followed.

Our editorial team planned on sharing a blog post on the “DIY Garden Bed” we made at the cottage a month ago. I struggled with sharing it because all we had were crappy iPhone pictures I took as the sun was going down. I originally planned on driving to the cottage one weekend so we could start planning our garden and take some higher-quality photos. But the latest lockdown changed our plans completely, and I had to make the decision to share it as it is or wait to retake them.

Since we won’t be able to visit the cottage until the end of May, I wanted to share this Easy DIY so you can build your own Raised Garden Bed. Spring is here and alot of people I know have already begun planting their seeds, so I didn’t want you missing out!

You can watch the tutorial in our Instagram highlights HERE.

Also, we did use the word “free” but it’s not clickbait I promise! We had two meanings behind it because the lumber we used was actually leftover boards we had at the cottage. If you’ve been a reader around here for a while you’d know I’m all about using what you have and avoid buying anything new if you can help it. The second idea behind using “free” is I noticed how many people we’re charging for the plans to make your own garden beds, and I wanted this to be not only accessible to everyone but also easy to do!

I hope you enjoy this quick and simple DIY tutorial on building a FREE raised garden bed.

5 Steps to DIY a Raised Garden Bed

Materials

The dimensions for our raised garden box was 7×3′ and 12″ deep. We used:

Step 1

Step 1 is to figure out how big or small you want your garden box to be. We’re giving you the exact dimensions we used for ours. We knew ahead of time that we wanted to make a pretty big garden bed so it made sense for us to make it this large. However, we will be adding two slightly smaller beds and placing them in our backyard at home later this spring. I plan on using the same steps to make that one as well.

Once you have your dimensions figured out you can begin to measure and cut the boards you’ll be using. Just so you know I want to make this as easy as possible with as few steps as we can get away with.

The first cuts we made were:

Four 7-foot 2×6 boards that will be used for the long sides of the bed.

Step 2

With the four boards cut, you will need to cut four legs next. Here are the dimensions for ours:

Cut four 4×4 boards into either 16 or 18inches depending on your desired height.

Step 3

Attach two of the boards from step 1, with one of the boards from step 2 to form the long side of the garden bed. We used a few deck screws (I linked above in Materials) and a clamp to hold the boards in place.

Do this for each side.

Remember to leave a 2″ gap from the edge so the sides will fit perfectly together (see the photo above).

Step 4

Remember the leftover boards from Step 1? We’re going to be using the remaining 3 ft (2×6) boards for the smaller sides of the garden bed.

Then you want to attach them directly into the 2″ gap on the longer side of the bed (see photo above).

Step 5

Once you have all four sides screwed together, it’s time to make the bottom of the bed. We made ours from four scrap cross pieces of 2×6 we had around the cottage, but I’ll give you two options you can use to make the beds properly.

Two options for installing the bottom of the garden bed:

The first option is to leave a quarter-inch gap between each of the bottom boards for drainage. Then you will need to lay a landscape fabric so the soil won’t fall out but will still allow the water to drain.

The second is by placing the boards tight together, drilling one or two 1.5 inch holes, and attach a spout for drainage.

Overall, this was a fun and “free” way to DIY a raised garden bed for the cottage. We hope this inspired you to go out and not only recycle some of the scraps you have around your home or cottage. But we also hope this inspires you to give this simple DIY a go! If you do be sure to tag us or send us a picture of it.