Homemade Raised Bed From Fallen Trees

Hey everyone! If you happened to catch my last couple of posts, I have been talking a lot about our garden and how just about this whole last week was spent getting it finished. Well, we usually just put our plants and seeds directly into the ground with some natural fertilizers, but over the last year or two, we have really been looking into getting some more raised beds.

Last year, we used the top off of an IBC tank as a raised and had some really good success. The IBC tanks worked really well and we will probably use them to some extent in the future, but we were looking at a few options to make a much larger one. After this success, we really felt that a raised bed would be a good option for several of our vegetables. For example, we have never had a whole lot of luck with planting carrots in the ground and thought we would give them a chance. With that being said, we can also plant things closer to help with the weeds.

So, our solution involved finding some smaller trees that had fallen in our woods and make a raised bed out of them. We do not like to cut down live trees, but if they have fallen then we feel better about using them. This was a fairly simple process and you could do it yourself. All we needed, outside of the logs, was a chain saw and some long nails. Here is what we started with.

First what we did was that we found logs we could cut to fit our desired length. Our bed is about 6'X12'. Then next we notched the ends of each log. This way they would sit on top of each other kind of like a Linkin Log, and so that the raised bed would be as close to smooth all the way around. We positioned the logs on top of each other, squared it up, and then drilled a hole in each of the four corners to drop the large nails in. This way it would help hold the logs in place and keep the dirt in the bed.

Then we started filling the bed with dirt, natural potting mixes, and natural fertilizers. This was a little bit of work, but know that it is done, I think we are really going to like it. Here is what it looks like now that it is done.

This is the only raised bed we have put together this year, so far. We may get more ready for next year, but we’ll wait to see how this one does first. Just a few of the things that we have planted in the bed are 3 different kinds of carrots, several types of radishes, kale, lettuces, and turnips. Like I said, after the IBC tanks last year, we are feeling pretty good about the results. So as long as we can get water to the seeds, it should do okay, but only time will tell.

Thanks for reading and I hope you check back in the future for updates!