How to Build a Raised Bed

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- [Donald] Thank you for joining PennState Extension for this Learn Now video.

This video is part of a series on raised bed design, construction, and soil media.

In this video, you will learn about constructing a raised production bed.

The first thing we do when building a raised bed is prepare for our build day.

We make sure our design is complete, our site is prepared, and we have the necessary supplies before starting.

Next, we gather our supplies.

For this project, we will need some safety equipment.

We'll need work gloves, safety goggles, and hearing protection.

Tools we will need for the job include a screwdriver, either manual or electric, with the appropriate bits; a saw, either a hand saw or an electric miter saw will work best; a staple gun with staples; a tape measure; a pencil or some other marking tool; an L-square; and scissors.

Next, we will gather our materials, including wood, wood screws, landscape fabric, and a topsoil compost mix or some other planting medium.

Now that we have our supplies together, it's time to be in the build process, making sure to use appropriate safety equipment at all times.

We'll start by measuring our pieces of wood using our tape measure, L-square, and marking tool.

When measuring and marking your pieces of wood, make sure to take nominal dimensions into consideration.

Nominal dimensions differ from the actual dimension of the wood.

For example, a two-inch by four-inch by eight-foot-long board is actually 1.5 inches by 3.5 inches by eight feet long.

With measurements complete, we can begin cutting our boards to length using our saw.

Once our wood is cut, we refer to our design to lay out the pieces.

Now that our pieces are laid out, we know we have everything we need.

Next, we will attach our post to our end boards and brace board.

To do so, we are using wood screws installed in a zig-zag pattern, drilling pilot holes when necessary.

For this project, we are using laminated two by four posts in place of four by four posts because we could not source untreated four by fours during the material gathering process.

Now, we will secure our end boards and brace board to the side boards.

Again, we will install our screws in a zig-zag pattern.

We will be careful to screw into the posts rather than the end grain of the wood to avoid splitting the wood and to build a longer-lasting bed.

Finally, we will cut our landscape fabric to size using scissors or another cutting tool and attach the landscape fabric to the bottom of the bed using our staples and staple gun.

We will make sure to pull the fabric tight during installation and place staples every two to three inches.

This will create an effective barrier with the ground and contain the soil medium that will eventually fill the bed.

After that, our final step is to fill our raised bed with soil media.

For this bed, we used a two-to-one topsoil compost mix.

If you have any questions about this process, please contact your local PennState Extension office.

If you are interested in learning more about raised bed design or soil media for raised beds, be sure to check out the other videos in this series or our online publication, "Quick and Easy Raised Bed Design for Urban Growers."