This weekend I set out to build a raised bed vegetable garden in my backyard.  Why a raised vegetable garden instead of just planting in the ground?  Well the soil in Georgia is poor and growing edibles usually requires a generous helping of "real dirt".  Real dirt in Georgia comes from your local home improvement store in bags labeled "top soil".  I had a general plan for my raised bed in my head before heading to the store which was to build an 8 foot by 4 foot rectangle about 6-8 inches tall.

My first choice of lumber was cedar or redwood to ward off insects and rot.  Unfortunately here in the southeast, neither is easy to come by unless you can find it at a speciality lumber yard.  I had to settle for a couple pieces of pressure treated lumber.  Now some people may be concerned about using pressure treated lumber near veggies.  At first I was concerned too, but then after reading up on ACQ treated lumber most of my concerns melted away.  I won't go into the details of ACQ, but I'm not any more worried about it than all that tuna fish we ate as kids.  So I picked up 3 pieces of 2x8x8 lumber and tossed them on my cart.

Next stop was the decking section because of a suggestion my mother made.  She suggested I use the right angle brackets used to hang deck rafters.  They are right angle connectors that accept 2x lumber and typically sit on top of 4x4 posts.  I picked up 4 Simpson Strong-Tie Rigid Tie Connectors (model # RTC24).  They are made with stainless steel so they should last a long time without corroding.

Final stop was the garden section for the top soil.  I eventually ended up needing a total of 20 1-cubic foot bags which filled the bed nearly to the top.  Don't bother with the expensive name-brand garden soil that is $10/bag.  Get the cheap top soil that is $1-$2/bag and buy fertilizer separately.  The cheap top soil usually can be found out front sitting on pallets or around back.  Ask for assistance if you can't find it because they like to hide it hoping you'll buy the expensive stuff instead.

We loaded up the car and went home to begin assembly.  First I cut one of the 2x8x8 into two lengths 4 foot long.  These would be the sides of the raised bed.  Next I connected all the sides together using the brackets.  I could have used some nails to securely attach the brackets to the wood, but the brackets and wood fit together so well I decided not to use any nails.  With the sides of the bed assembled, I prepped the ground were the bed was to be located by removing most of the grass and weeds.  Next I covered the ground with newspaper 2 sheets deep which would help smother and kill off any remaining grass and weeds.  The newspaper will decompose in a couple weeks.  Finally I filled the bed with the top soil nearly to the top.

Here's a picture of the finished bed: