Due to changes in our garden planning, we decided to recycle the wooden fences we had used for privacy which we now, no longer require. Instead of selling them we decided to build a raised bed from the recycled wood. I had kept the bulky and tough packaging foil from our garden house as I thought it might come in useful and I was right... 😀

When I thought about how to build a raised bed, my initial thoughts were to build a basic and simple 90-degree angled box but on consideration I decided how boring. So, I then decided how about a raised garden bed in the form of a ship. After some careful consideration I realized that the cuts required will all be 30 degrees.

From the wooden planks I removed all nails and screws found. In my case the planks had a size of approx. 180 cm x 14 cm. I then used the cross beams of my fence to stabilize the walls on the longer side of my raised bed construction. The posts are about 10 cm x 10 cm and 200 cm long. I cut them with a wily 30° degrees cut.

The overall size of the raised bed now is 260 cm long, 160 cm wide and about 85 cm high.

Supplies

Table saw

Handheld stapler

Staple gun (air pressure or electric)

Circular saw

Angle meter

Plastic sheet or similar plastic for the inside

Wood screws and cordless screwdriver

Poultry netting for the ground to keep root voles outside

Wood shelves

Wood piles

Step 1: Cut Side Planks

I require long and short planks for the walls. The longer ones I will use for the left and right sides, the shorter ones for front and back. My old fence planks had rounded sides so I cut all the rounded edges off and then I cut about half of my wooden planks in half.

Using a 30-degree angled cut, I cut the top and bottom of my old fence planks so that they now fit snugly into my previously prepared posts cuts. Please make sure that the top and bottom cut angles match.

If you want an additional border at the top, please be sure the planks are long enough for the job! The border planks must be longer on all sides than the side walls!

Step 2: Build Support

Using the table saw, the 10 cm squared old fence support posts are cut in half using a 30-degree cut setting.

The length of the post depends on the width of your plank’s, times the desired rows.

If your planks have a width of 17 cm and you want to use 5 rows, then the post should be 17 x 5 = 85 cm high. Make sure that all planks have the same width! Also make sure that they are even. Otherwise, your posts might be too short (as was in my case 😞).

It is very important that the all the posts have the correct height if you want to additionally add a border to the top of the raised bed construction.

Step 3: Assemble Shelves and Poles

I directly stapled the planks to the poles. While my wife held the pole in the correct position, I positioned the to be nailed plank and stapled them using a compressed air staple/nail gun. I would recommend doing this on a flat surface and not like myself – directly on the lawn.

Make sure everything is exactly squared off and as I decided to use long staple/nails I was able to put it all together quickly, however if you have parts not correctly squared off, it proved difficult to remove these staples from the wood. So be sure that all is aligned before stapling.

Maybe you should try and just use one screw, staple / nail for the first row. Tier up the planks to the desired height, by placing one on top of each other and fix the upper row with one nail. This will make sure that everything is correct and straight.

Step 4: Add Plastic Foil

Staple the plastic to the inside of the bed. don't worry about protruded foil - you can easily cut it afterwards with a sharp knife.

Step 5: Insert Poultry Netting

If your raised bed is placed on directly on the soil then you should put some poultry netting on the ground of the bed to keep voles away. Just put the wire netting on the ground, cut roughly to fit the size of the bed and staple it to the side walls.

Step 6: Add Stabilization

You should add some stabilization to the long side of the raised bed. Just fix some planks upright in the middle of the bed and put two planks between.

Step 7: Add Border

If you want to have an additional border then you will need some slim planks (I cut mine in half lengthwise) and measured the required length, also using a 30-degree cut. Staple or screw the border planks to the top of the raised bed.