Home Gardener: Building a Raised Bed Community Garden

Making a community garden dream come alive sure was a challenge! The church discussion group I belong to was the incubator for this idea. We wanted to be showing others how to be ecologically minded and show our caring for the beautiful place we live on (Planet Earth!). And I was so inspired that I became the point person in the creation process from start to finish. We just built this project so I thought it would be great to share while everything is fresh in my mind...so other churches or community groups would know the basics of how to put such a project together in a logical and successful manner.

So first get some enthusiastic gardeners together to plan. Decide how many beds you want to make. I suggest you make them no wider than 3½ feet. Use 2x10 lumber as long as you want the beds to be. We made ours 10 ft. 4 inches by 3 ft. 4 inches. The boards were roughly that length, so we added four inches to the length and width to take advantage of the extra board.

Look over the space available and pick a location with lots of sunshine all day long and that's as level as possible. If you can locate the garden near a water spigot that would be helpful on those dry August days.

Be thoughtful as to maintenance when you plan—meaning that you need to think about mowing near your gardens. We put mulch paths between the beds so no mowing will be needed inside the garden, and we put 1 foot wide mulch borders around the entire garden so there would be no need for weed whacking close to the wood containers; just mowing around the edges. The paths between beds are close to three feet wide so a wheelbarrow can get through and people can work near each other in comfort.

So, after planning we marked the four sides with spray paint on the lawn. Next we laid down 10+ sheets-thick layers of newspaper, covered that with weed barrier and spaced out lots of rocks/boards/bricks to hold it down. This was to kill the grass. It takes about four weeks for that to happen, depending on the heat and water in the soil (hot and dry weather kills grass faster).

Then a couple of weeks later we built the beds right there. We removed the weed barrier and set it aside. The two inch thick red oak boards were trimmed right on the pickup truck bed to square them up to fit together correctly. Some smart person brought a chainsaw, which made short work of this task. Then the three screw holes on each side of the short ends were pre-drilled. A cordless drill was mighty handy for this! Then the ends were screwed together quickly using a screwdriver bit in the drill. Be sure to get coated exterior screws so they don’t rust easily. We used 3 inch length screws and they worked fine. 

Next, the wood beds were placed in their exact final positions. That little bit of moving was hard work, as they were pretty heavy once all four sides were attached together. Then we laid back down the weed barrier on the paths between the beds. And I cut some of the barrier in half (the long way) to make thin strips to put around the whole perimeter of the garden. More pads of newspaper were placed on thin spaces. The newspaper will decompose in a few months.  

All the beds were filled with the compost from the Saucon Valley Compost Center. The borough manager graciously waived the filling fee so we could load several times with our pickup trucks and get them filled fast. We used shovels and rakes to empty the truck beds. 

Then we got a couple loads of the wood chip mulch. This was spread off the truck by shovel and with a wheelbarrow. We laid it fairly thick, shooting for four inches of the light fluffy wood chips. They will settle down to more like 2 inches within a month or so.

It is certainly a good idea to consider fencing to keep out critters like rabbits, groundhogs and deer. We didn’t do that…yet! I vote for the 2.5 foot rabbit fence that is short enough to climb over. Maybe next year. We are also talking about building a rain barrel or two.

We will ask those who garden-share our new beds to avoid using chemicals, go organic and weed regularly. They will need to clear their bed by the end of fall so it is neat for winter. Basic polite garden rules will rule!

We hope to donate excess veggies to the food bank here in town—and have a veggie share table in church, where people can donate some cash for that zuke into a collection jar (cash that can be donated to the New Jerusalem Food Bank).

It was a wonderfully cooperative effort by the volunteers who built this awesome raised bed garden in four, fast moving hours. And it is a beautiful sight to my eyes. Plus, I am happy that the materials were mostly all local. We got the red oak boards from a small lumber mill just south of Hellertown. They are not treated with chemicals, so they will slowly age and will not release chemicals into the garden space. And as I said, the mulches came from the local compost center. I already had most of a box of exterior 3 inch screws from Lowes, but you can get such at the town hardware store. Weed block was purchased at Ace Hardware.

Maybe your organization is thinking of starting such a garden project. It can be done and it is smart to use local materials and free stuff whenever possible. Spend some time planning first and get enthusiastic. And get busy!

Time will tell how this project turns out. We are just at the beginning of our community garden! But it is a very good start...