New Garden Beds Arrive!

I like my raised beds from Gardeners.com just fine, but I wanted to try something different, and Naturalyards.com was having a 20% off sale plus offers a lot more variety in bed sizes. Their cedar planks are really thick, plus the installation could not be easier. You line up the pre-drilled holes and slide the provided metal poles through. You can see the poles in the photo. I'll be hammering them in some once I finalize the bed--don't want to poke my eye out! The best thing about the poles is that they can be used to install row cover on flexible pvc tubing bent over the bed.

Because the beds are 8 feet long, they come with a metal stabilizer that runs across the bed. I'll use this dividing line to separate my plantings for rotating crops. Once the bed is filled and planted I don't do much digging in to it anyway, but it will be easy to remember not to plunge a shovel in at the halfway mark. Could I have purchased cedar planks at Home Depot? Certainly, but I like supporting this small business, and I like having the ease of installation a kit provides.

I placed cardboard over the grass to weaken it--it will make it a lot easier to dig it up in a couple of weeks when the soil dries up a little. Then I top it with purchased top soil and compost and plant away!