Gardening enthusiasts know the value of right soil for good growth of their potted plants. But what if you have poor soil that does not suit your plant's growth. You can consider building a raised garden bed which will enable you to use the right soil combination in a confined space, ensuring proper conditions for plant growth.

A raised garden bed is an manually elevated portion of the garden, that is used as a gardening bed to help the plants grow better. The basic objective of the bed is to help the weak plants thrive. The procedure of making the raised garden bed is extremely simple and straight forward. In order to build it, we would be making a small enclosure, rectangular in shape, about 1 foot in height, which is to be filled with rich soil and organic matter.

Requirements

• Synthetic wood or any strong brand of wood. Just make sure that it is durable enough, before constructing the raised garden bed. Cut the wood in the dimensions that you want. The height of the bed should be about one foot.
• Nails and screws of uniform sizes.
• General garden tools and gardening accessories, especially hammers and screwdrivers.
• Compost and soil. It is better to have naturally made or homemade compost.
• Seeds and plant starts.
• Shovel and rakes.
• 4 anchor joints.
• Measuring tape.

Procedure

• Step 1: In this procedure, we are basically going to make a rectangular enclosure, hence it is necessary to have a small plan made before you begin the actual procedure. In the stage of planning, you also need to look for a place that has ample sunlight exposure.
• Step 2: After you are done with the planning, start the construction of the raised garden bed. Many professional botanists and gardeners prefer to improvise the base of the raised garden bed, by removing the grass and then spreading a small amount of gravel on the ground. After the thin layer of gravel is made, take the measurements and make the accurate markings according to your plan. Mark the four corners of the rectangle by taking measurements. Put in the anchor joints into the soil and fix them in properly.
• Step 3: Fix the wood into the anchor joints. For this, you might need a saw to cut of the slightly excess amount of wood length, so that the entire length of wood fits in properly into the 2 anchor joints.
• Step 4: After you are done with fixing the planks of wood, reinforce the planks with the help of small pieces of bending metal and nails.
• Step 5: This step is very important as it involves filling the bed with the appropriate texture of soil and compost. To do this, you can evenly fill the bed with the gardening soil.
• Step 6: Mix the compost with the soil on the top and spread it evenly on the bed. Make sure that you do not fill the bed to the brim and leave a few inches of space.

Your raised garden bed is now ready and it is time to plant some plants in the bed. You can plant vegetables and delicate plants in the bed. This type of raised garden bed requires a lot of care, so make sure that you water it regularly, and remove the unwanted grass and weeds from the box.

If you bear the initial set up cost, raised garden beds require very little maintenance besides mulching of top soil to control weed growth and retention of moisture. If you plan to grow plants partially during the year, add manure or fresh compost to the top soil.