When you are building your backyard garden, one of the easiest ways to avoid a lot of hassles with soil and pests is to use the very practical and easy to build system of raised beds. Gardening in raised beds has many advantages including:

• There's no need to dig into your lawn or yard when you choose to build raised beds
• The raised bed will eliminate many pests and soil borne issues
• You have greater control over the nutrients and feeding of the plants
• There's good drainage with them as well, the excess water simply runs out the corners and sides
• You will be able to fill them with high quality soil, there's no need to repair the soil you have
• They are raised up from ground level so you don't have to crawl around on hands and knees
• You can do it for nearly no cost using recycled building materials.

If you have a hammer, a vehicle and the ability to go around town and collect a few discarded pallets, then you have almost all that's necessary to get the materials needed to build your own raised beds without opening your wallet at all.

It's important to choose pallets that are made from plain, unpainted white wood though, do not use treated green or blue wood for your gardening.

Make sure you are collecting the pallets from people and places that are actually throwing them out or not going to use them.

Quite often if you just ask, people are thankful for their removal and allow you to take them no problem. Don't steal pallets.

Once you have 5 or 6 of them on hand, bang them apart with a hammer and remove the nails as well. It takes some effort and time but it'll be worth it.

The method:

You'll likely need a saw to cut the pieces once you determine the desired dimensions of your bed.

Use the thinner 1 by 4 boards vertically, stacking them on their sides horizontally to make the sides and ends. Stand the 2 by 4's vertically for the corners by making an "L" shape and screw it all together. There's no need to put any wood on the bottom, the bed will just sit as is where you've built it. You can also add a top edge to it by laying one of the thin boards flat on the top, cut the corners to fit and nail it down. Doing this gives a finishing touch and completed look to the bed.

Line the inside and bottom of the bed with landscape fabric, this will help retain a little moisture and prevent the soil from leaking out over time. Use cedar so you can avoid chemical treatment in the wood as this could leach into the soil and the roots of your veggies. Cedar is naturally rot resistant and your raised bed will last you several years before you face any type of wood rotting issues.

You can build any style of raised bed you like, choose one that suits the area you are working with.

Anything from just a plain rectangle 12" deep to a tiered masterpiece with different levels of garden bed for different plants.

There are many designs and pictures to take suggestions from, learn more about small space gardening and start growing some food today. Carrots are super easy to grow and they taste delicious.

It's really fun and the kids will love it too.