Help me build a raised vegetable garden

[96Firebird]

Beginning of last year I tilled up a portion of my yard that used to be a garden (back before I bought the house) and tried a veggie garden in it. Cherry tomato plants did well, cucumbers and peppers did not. Plus, I had a LOT of weeds that were relentless. I tried keeping up but it was a lost cause.

I'm hoping to get a better handle on it this year, and was thinking of going with a raised bed garden with some fresh soil to both help keep weeds away and prevent the soil from holding water like it did with heavy rains last year.

Here is what I'm starting with:



It measures roughly 13' x 9'. My plan is to cover what is there now with a weed barrier, throw a bunch of soil on top and top that off with compost. Should I till what's there before adding the rest?

As for the sides, what's the best wood to use? I'll probably have to cut the 13' long section down to 2x 7 1/2' sections, since my truck bed is only 6 1/2' long. I've been reading that pressure treated isn't good for vegetable gardens, since the chemicals can seep into the soil and into the plants. So I've been looking at dimensional lumber at Lowes/Home Depot, something like 2" x 10" wood, does the type of wood matter? I'm looking to get maybe 5yrs out of it, until I most likely move. Also, is there a benefit to using something like a retaining wall block for joints over brackets and screws?

I'll get the soil delivered via dump truck and wheelbarrow it to the garden, if my calculations are correct 13' x 9' x 8" deep is roughly 3 cubic yards?

Anything I'm overlooking? Any other advice you can throw my way? Once I get the physical garden figured out, I'll need to look into automatic drip irrigation since I'll be away from home for weeks at a time this summer and want to make sure everything still gets proper hydration.

 

[BoomerD]

I use cedar for my planter boxes. If you're planting directly on the ground, I'd nuke the lawn with Roundup first...give it a couple of weeks, then clear the dead stuff off...then till it, build the planter box, fill it with good soil...plenty of organics. If the soil being delivered is just "dirt," amend it very well...good composted steer manure, even bagged soil amendments.
Keep in mind, 13' x 9' will be difficult to tend to in the middle. Maybe make a walkway through the center so you can tend to all of it.

 

[Micrornd]

Let me throw this out there since you're talking about a 5 yr life span -
What I use are milk crates and liners with simple adjustable drip irrigation on a battery powered timer. (One set of batteries last more than a year, but we change them yearly to be safe)
The milk crate planters and liners come in single, double and triple sizes.

We tried raised beds and found this solution more versatile for us.
This allows us to fertilize each crate individually with the specific type best for the plant. It also allows us to walk between the plants and/or trellis them individually.
It allows us to change plant spacing as necessary for growth. (This works especially well for plants that naturally spread like mint)
It allows us to place the plants in the best light for them and rotate them for even growth.
This also makes it easier to fully inspect the plants from all sides to prevent critters of disease, and easier to isolate a plant if it does have a problem.
And at the end of the growing season, it allows us to change the growing media individually, if needed.
All of these things are unavailable, when you have one large raised bed.

You might consider it, or you might consider more that 1 bed. Reaching in to a 9' wide bed will be very hard once the plants start to grow and walking in it isn't the best solution either.
And it's 3.25 cu. yds.

 

[BoomerD]

Let me throw this out there since you're talking about a 5 yr life span -
What I use are milk crates and liners with simple adjustable drip irrigation on a battery powered timer. (One set of batteries last more than a year, but we change them yearly to be safe)
The milk crate planters and liners come in single, double and triple sizes.

We tried raised beds and found this solution more versatile for us.
This allows us to fertilize each crate individually with the specific type best for the plant. It also allows us to walk between the plants and/or trellis them individually.
It allows us to change plant spacing as necessary for growth. (This works especially well for plants that naturally spread like mint)
It allows us to place the plants in the best light for them and rotate them for even growth.
This also makes it easier to fully inspect the plants from all sides to prevent critters of disease, and easier to isolate a plant if it does have a problem.
And at the end of the growing season, it allows us to change the growing media individually, if needed.
All of these things are unavailable, when you have one large raised bed.

You might consider it, or you might consider more that 1 bed. Reaching in to a 9' wide bed will be very hard once the plants start to grow and walking in it isn't the best solution either.
And it's 3.25 cu. yds.

Milk crates? Interesting idea. What do you use for liners? Weed cloth would work...maybe not the most efficient or effective...but it would work.

 

[Micrornd]

Milk crates? Interesting idea. What do you use for liners? Weed cloth would work...maybe not the most efficient or effective...but it would work.

Just look up "milk crate liners for gardening" (and variations on that). They are made just for planting in the single, double and triple milk crates, and are breathable and pass water.
I shop for the ones with handles. They are generally thicker than the others and last longer.

About 80% of mine that are 6 yrs old and still going strong, which is saying something for a fabric based item always exposed to the FL. sunshine.
With the handled liners you can lift them out of the milk crates easier.
They can stand by themselves in the liner alone, but the media and plant filled liners tend to lose their shape and sag over time if not in the milk crates.

I did try weed cloth originally (I'm cheap too ) but it was hard to shape, the seams allowed weeds on the sides of the milk crates, it was a mess when I wanted to change the soil, and it only lasted less than a year in the FL. sun.

I always recommend the milk crates when people ask about a temporary garden or unless people have the room to make permanent raised beds not over 4'-5' wide (so that they can get to all sides of their plants or trellises easily).

 

[KentState]

This is our attempt at a raised garden. Basically 7 4' x 4' cedar boxes with a weed barriers under them and then lined each one with a barrier. The taller ones are for tomatoes and the smaller hold all of the herbs, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, onions and lettuce. Took about 4 sq/yards of garden soil to fill them. I also added a drip irrigation system to water them.

 

[96Firebird]

Thanks for all the suggestions, sorry for not following up but I headed in a slightly different direction. I'll update just in case anyone was curious...

I ended up buying a raised garden kit from Costco, the Vita Modular Vinyl Garden Kit. I got it for $70, which I felt was a good deal considering making my own out of wood would have probably cost more than that...
The kit is made for 2 4'x4' beds, but I decided to go for 1 12'x4' bed, since I had the room. Then came the filling... I had heard about a technique of putting old wood as a base layer to both take up space and to allow for nutrients to enter the soil as the wood breaks down. I had some logs that had been sitting under my deck from when I moved in 6 years ago, decided they would make a nice bottom layer. Filled the rest with 30 bags of top soil from HD, which got me about halfway up the bed. Next, threw some dead rose stems I had cut off my rose bushes, for more organic matter. Topped it off with a cubic yard of 50/50 topsoil/compost mix, along with some compost soil I got from the local compost company I contribute my food scraps to.

I don't eat many vegetables, so I planted cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. I bought 4 cherry tomato plants, my neighbors gave me 5, and my sister gave me 4. Too many, I know, but I wanted to see what would grow. I also bought a 6 pack of cucumber plants, and 4 pepper plants from my sister as well. I bought the sunflower plant to attract bees, along with marigolds and lavender to spice up the look.

Next up was figuring out irrigation, since I am away from my home weeks at a time to visit my long distance girlfriend. I bought a wifi-controlled irrigation timer, but realized my sprinkler wasn't the best at watering the bed when the wind blows the water every which way. Plus, its a waste of water. So I decided to build myself a DIY drip irrigation system. Originally I had all lines coming out of a single 1/4" line, but then realized I lost a lot of pressure so I decided to put in a manifold that controls it better. Next year I will use 1/2" lines on the long ends with 1/4" lines coming off of that, but this method has worked well so far.


Then I put some mulch around the outside and some tomato cages and stakes in to make it look nice and neat...

Then it was time for me to leave my house for 3 weeks as I spend 4th of July away from home and then 2 weeks with my girlfriend. I was afraid one of the drip irrigators would pop off, I was afraid my irrigation controller would disconnect from my wifi, I was afraid a leak would spring somewhere. But it all worked well, a little too well. Considering we got next to no rain the whole time I was gone, I had to irrigate a lot. I came back to my cherry tomato plants almost as tall as I am, my cucumber plants spread every which way, and my pepper plants fighting for sunlight under the cherry tomatoes. So I definitely planted too much, but I'm going to keep everything as-is for now and see what happens. Plenty of green cherry tomatoes, a few short cucumbers and no peppers yet. I don't eat pepper so don't care much if those don't yield a crop, but excited to get some vegetables. I live alone, so a lot will be shared amongst my family and neighbors.