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How to make a quick and easy raised bed garden from cedar fence rails. These easy garden beds are perfect for cottage gardens and those who love farmhouse style.
I’ve always loved using raised garden beds they have a lot of pluses to them. They are easy to weed and care for.
One of my favorite ways to build simple raised beds is to use old cedar rails.
These old fence rails fit in perfectly with our old farmhouse. This makes sense because they were the standard pioneer fences, and there were many still in use when I was a kid.
These old split cedar rails can last for years, weather to a nice grey color, and look amazing in your garden.
This style of garden bed is perfect for low-raised bed gardens. Since the fence rails are not perfectly flat they won’t join together well like boards do. Trying to stack them would leave gaps between the wood that would let soil fall through.
How To Find Cedar Rails
Depending on where you live cedar rails can be really easy to find or harder.
Here in Ontario, they were commonly used for farm fencing. Although many farmers have replaced the old split rails with more modern fencing you can often find them for sale.
Look for ads on Facebook and other online buy and sell-sites. Ask local farmers or farm supply stores who may know someone with rails for sale.
You can also post a wanted ad on your favorite sites.
Materials Needed
- Split cedar fence rails
- Measuring tape
- Saw – hand saw or chainsaw to cut the rails what ever you are comfortable and experienced using.
- Cardboard – To place under the garden bed to help prevent weeds from growing through. Newspapers are another good option if you don’t have easy access to enough cardboard.
- Compost – You’ll want good quality compost to fill the raised beds with to give your plants a great start.
How To Make Cedar Rail Raised Beds
First, decide where you want to build your new garden bed. It’s best to find a nice flat area. Depending on what plants you want to grow you might want a full sun garden or a shaded garden area.
Next lay down some thick cardboard to cover the area. This will help to block weeds from coming up into your new garden.
If you are planning to mulch the pathways around the garden, then it’s a good idea to extend the cardboard into the pathways too. It will help suppress the weeds in your pathways and also from the edges of the garden bed.
Lay down the cedar rails to lay out the longer edges of your raised bed.
Measure the short sides and cut the cedar rails to fit and lay them down to fill in the gaps.
You can nail the rails together but often we just lay them down next to each other. This makes it easy to move them later if we decide to move the garden bed.
Once the frame is done, fill the bed with good quality compost and rake the top smooth. Try to fill it almost to the top as the soil will settle and lower over time.
Now your new raised bed garden is ready to plant.
More Garden Bed Ideas
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Kim Mills is a homeschooling mom of 6 and lives on an urban homestead in Ontario, Canada. Blogging at Homestead Acres she enjoys sharing tips to help you save money, grow and preserve your own food.