Sharing all of our tips & tricks for how to get started with a DIY veggie garden for the backyard with step by step instructions & pictures.
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How to Make a DIY Veggie Garden for the Backyard
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For the first time since we moved into our farmhouse we have a veggie garden in our backyard.
Our yard was mostly overgrown with dying evergreens and we have had to take down a lot of trees these last few years to make space for some raised gardening beds.
Four years later, we finally have the time and energy to get this veggie garden started.
How Much Sun Do You Need to Start a Veggie Garden?
Our veggie garden is located in the sunniest and flattest spot in our yard, next to our new backyard home orchard.
I recommend locating you veggie garden where it will get the most sun in your backyard.
The flatter the yard, the better when laying out the DIY raised garden boxes.
STEP by Step Instructions for How to Make a DIY Veggie Garden
To build these raised gardening beds we picked up 6- 8 foot cedar boards from Lowes (like the ones we used to make our cedar fence).
Cedar wood is great because it is chemical free and naturally resists damage from wood destroying insects.
It also turns a pretty weathered grey over time :).
*UPDATE* – We found that using cedar for our veggie garden beds was not the best idea since the wood only lasted a few years.
We redid the raised gardening beds HERE for our veggie garden out of pressure treated wood which will hopefully last more than a few years.
Step ONE – Creating the Raised Gardening Beds
Jason cut two of the cedar boards in half.
We screwed the boards together with exterior screws to create two 4 by 8 foot raised garden beds.
Step TWO – Fill the Raised Garden Beds with Soil
We have a spot in our yard where we have a large dirt pile of dirt we have been adding to as we have been working on the yard.
Jason and I took turns filling the wheel barrel full of dirt to dump inside the raised gardening beds.
We leveled out the dirt and took out any rocks we found along the way.
Step THREE – Add Manure or Compost to Enrich the Soil of Your Veggie Garden
We added cow manure to the dirt to make the soil more fertile for the veggies to grow.
Later, we added chicken manure from our backyard chickens to help enrich the soil in our veggie garden.
Step FOUR – Adding Vegetables & Fruit to the Veggie Garden
I was so excited about finally having a spot to grow vegetables.
I wound up buying WAY more than we had room for, ha!
We will definitely need to add a few more raised beds in the future!!!
The kids helped me plant the veggies and herbs.
Once the herbs, vegetables & strawberry plants were added we added hardwood mulch to keep the weeds at bay.
What Vegetables & Fruits We Added to the Veggie Garden
In the end we added lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, rhubarb, brussel sprouts, leeks, carrots, strawberries and various herbs to the raised beds.
It was so much fun planting with them and see them so excited about vegetables.
Our younger two run out every morning to check out the progress of the plants.
Below is our first strawberry! (see where we created a strawberry patch HERE)
It won’t be long now before the rest of these veggies are ready to harvest.
After just 1 month our vegetable garden has really taken off and we have been enjoying all these home grown vegetables from our land!
If you are thinking of adding a DIY veggie garden to your backyard, I hope this inspire you to give it a try!
by Tara Lehman
Our family has enjoyed our DIY Veggie Garden so much that we added two more beds to it (HERE) & a DIY Arbor (HERE)
Don’t Forget to Pin our New Veggie Garden Bed to your Gardening Board!
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Beautiful garden. Hope it does well! Can’t wait to see your harvest!!
We def hope this garden does well :). Thanks so much for stopping by Kathy!
Only way to go: RAISED BEDS!!!!
Thanks Susan!
We made a similar garden at our home, but we had gophers!! They ate most of our veggies. This year we have to take all the dirt out of our planters and put thicker gopher wire. Love the garden you created.
Thanks so much for stopping by our to see our veggie garden! Sorry about the gophers eating your veggies, good luck with your garden this year!
I love your veggie garden! It looks fab! I had one for a few years and it was so much fun. I will look forward to seeing it grow and grow!
Thank you so much Carolann! We are really enjoying growing our own vegetables this year 🙂
Our tomatoes and cukes are starting to fruit! Yippee…beans are up…it’s one of my favorite things about this time of year…all the new vegetable growth.
Your garden looks fantastic!
Thanks Lynn! Vegetable gardens are so much fun 🙂