If you've ever wanted to grow a garden in your backyard but you have bad soil or only a concrete slab, then a garden box is for you. When you have a garden box, you can grow all sorts of vegetables or flowers, wherever you live. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
- 1
Find a nice place in your yard. Even if you dont have good soil or if you just have concrete, you'll need a minimum space of about 5 feet by 3 feet, though you can make it whatever size you want it to be. Measure out the four corners of the box and make a mark where each corner should go. Take the 4 x 4-foot weather-treated wood and cut four lengths of about 3 feet each. Those will be the corners of the outdoor garden box.
2Cut the 6 x 2-foot weather treated boards into six 5-foot lengths and six 3-foot lengths. The 5-foot lengths will be the sides of the garden box and the 3-foot lengths will be the ends of the garden box. Attach the sides of the garden box to the corner posts that you have cut, using 3-inch deck screws that you can find at any hardware store. Attach the first side board flush with the bottom of the corner posts. Then attach the the second and third side boards above the first side board, leaving a very small space of about 1/8 inch to allow for expansion. You should now have one side made with two corner posts and three side boards attached. You can now do the same thing with the other side.
3Take both of the sides and attach them with the 3-foot end boards, using the same process that you used to attach the side boards to the corner posts. You should now have a box that is 5 feet by 3 feet and 18 inches high, with the corner posts sticking up higher than the box by about 12 inches or so.
4If you did not build the box in the place you want your garden, move it to that spot now. Cut a piece of garden liner, which is a plastic sheet sold in rolls that you can find at any home improvement store. Cut it to a length that covers the entire bottom of the box and even up the sides and ends of the box, leaving about a half inch of the liner sticking up over the sides. Pour the garden soil into the garden box on top of the liner. It will take about 6 to 8 bags of high quality soil to fill the box. Only fill the box up to two inches below the top of the side of the box. Do not fill it all the way to the top. The liner will keep weeds from growing into the box and will also protect the concrete under your box if you placed the garden box on concrete.
5Plant your garden. Select the seeds or seedlings for the types of plants you want to grow carefully and follow spacing and watering directions found on the seed packages.