Nina wanted to have a kind of a trellis built so she could hang her tomato plants upside-down and save space in the garden. Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about raised garden beds for a couple of years and decided that I’d make one and see how it would work out. So, when I went to buy the materials for Nina’s tomato hangers, I also bought most of the material I’d need to make my concept of a raised garden bed. Tonight I’ve finished everything except for staining the wood to protect it. Then it’s ready for dirt and planting.

The top of the main box is 40 inches off the ground, just about the right height to be able to work at the garden box while standing. The box itself is two feet wide, six feet long, and ten inches deep. The bottom of the box is a stiff wire mesh, which will be covered by gardening fabric so excess water can drain out.

The top part is intended for hanging plants, including hanging upside-down tomato plants. The back cross-member is offset from the garden box about a foot, so anything hanging there has a long way to grow down, and if the box is set in the right orientation, the hanging planters will not shade the rest of the garden.

The shelf on the bottom is for storage. All in all, I’m quite happy with the result. This is the “beta” version of the garden beds. There are a few things I’ll do differently for the “production” version. For instance, I’ll put the legs inside the box rather than on the outside. That results in a much more efficient use of lumber for the shelf underneath. As currently constructed, a 1″x 4″x 8′ piece of pine only gives me 3 slats for the shelf and about 22″ of throw-away at the end of the piece. With the legs inside, I’ll be able to get 4 slats out of each 1″x 4″x 8′ board.

Nina also suggested making just the box / shelf without the top part for hanging plants. These things would work nicely on an apartment veranda and would probably sell well.

Now that I’ve made one, I could probably build the next one in about four hours (or 3 1/2 hours without the top). It’s been a fun project and it’ll be completely done by Saturday and ready for planting. I think I’ll price out material to build about seven with no top part and three with a top part. That could be a winter project and I could use the proceeds to finance a cruise next year! Stay tuned for pictures when it’s finally set in place and planted.