Last year was my first year gardening.  I made my very first raised garden bed, and tried composting for the first time (I’m trying two bins and may have to do three to keep it from being too full).  My garden bed worked for what I was doing last year.

Garden bed from last year.

This year I decided that I wanted a deeper garden.  I don’t think that this garden was deep enough, and I didn’t want all of the random pots all over the place, I’d .  So I began the process of making a new garden bed.

My dad was getting rid of the old picnic table and was going to scrap the wood.  The wood was in pretty good shape.  It was slightly warped in some places but wasn’t rotting or anything like that.  So I asked him to save the wood for me.  He had to cut the bolts (with my handy Dremel) and I went to pick them up.

I took off of work June 3-5 (I have extra vacation available and the days were open) which worked out perfectly for me, I was able to work on my garden bed and work a little more on the glider.  To start, I grabbed my Citrastrip and I gave the boards a good coating.  Then I worked on sanding the chair while I waited. I’m not a patient when it comes to waiting.  I’m the kind of girl who wants something done like 10 minutes ago. I spent a few hours scrapping as much paint I could get off.  When I couldn’t scrape anymore off, I sanded the wood down.  

Here are the boards in various stages of paint removal.

Once the boards were wiped down, I cut them to size.  I sanded the edges to remove any splinters or nicks from the cutting. 

Next, I put the boards together how I wanted them to fit and I drew a line so I would have an approximation of where the end would lie and I drilled two holes through each of the ends of the long boards. On the first board I screwed the screws into the board so only the tip was exposed and marked where the other board should line up.  Then I drilled holes into the short broads.  I repeated the process on the other side, creating a box.

When the boards were securely attached, I took the garden fabric and cut to roughly fit the inside of the box.  I stapled near the bottom of the box, and then near the top of the fabric, making sure to pull it snugly. I did this twice, making two layers.

I picked up a pot of French herbs, that included Basil, Chives, Summer Savory and Oregano.  I re-potted the plants, into the smallest of my metal bins.  Last year I picked up party bins in three different sizes from TJMaxx last year and I drilled drainage holes in the bottom and used them for pots for carrots, herbs and strawberries. I’ve already dug into the basil for some fresh summer recipes.

My little garden is taking off.  I can’t wait to see how it turns out!  How are your summer gardens going? What are you guys growing?  I’d love to hear about it in the comments!