When we first started looking for a better way to grow a garden we found a website that sold raised garden boxes. These boxes we very expensive, most of them were in the $200 range. Since we could not afford that price I decided to build my own. I used what I saw on the website as a template and designed my own in my head. Yesterday I put together a raised garden box for my wife. Because it is an easy project and it is also a useful item to have I thought I would share how I put it together.

The boxes that I put together are simple rectangles so they are not difficult to make. The dimensions of the box that I built are 8′ x 3′.

Ok, so the first thing is materials. To make a box with the same dimensions as mine, you will need some wood. I was able to build it using 1 – 4″ x 4″ x 8′ cedar post, and 6 – 1″ x 6″ x 8′ cedar boards. I also used about 32 rust resistant cedar colored screws.

The tools that I used are a Table saw, Miter saw, tape measure, drill, pencil, and drill bits. If you don’t have a Table saw or a Miter saw you can probably do everything you need with a Circular saw.

The first thing you need to do is make sure all the boards are the right size. Since this is a 3′ x 8′ box I need to make sure the long boards are only 8′ long. As you can see the boards are slightly longer than 8′, so we need to trim them a bit. The trimming will serve two purposes, first it will make the boards the correct size, second it will make sure the boards are all the same size. Having boards of different lengths will make things difficult when you try and put it all together. In addition, we need to cut two of our boards into 3′ sections.

The boards on the website were all dog eared and since my wife likes that look I needed to dog ear these boards also. I because I am putting the boards one on top of the other I only want to dog ear two corners per board. If you put two boards together the corners you want to dog ear are on the top and bottom. I choose to make my cuts 1″ long. Using a miter saw makes these really easy because you can change the direction of the saw blade.

Now its time to cut the 4″ x 4″. We need to make our cuts at 13 1/2″. This will give us 7 posts for use in our project. Since we only need 4 we will have 3 left over in case we make another box.

Now we need to dog ear the posts. Again I choose to make 1″ cuts, except this time we make cuts on all 4 sides. This is easy with a miter saw because the blade can tilt. Even though we only need 4 for this project I recommend that you cut them all. This way if you do start another project you don’t have to spend the time cutting as many posts.

Now comes the fun part, we get to start putting things together. I like to place the edge of the boards about 1″ from the edge of the post. I then put two screws into each side of each board. Make sure you drill pilot holes so that you do not split the wood when you put in the screws.

Thats it, were done. In addition, it cost a lot less than the ones on the website. Below you can see my box next to other boxes I have built.