1: Choose a sunny spot. Form a rectangle with your wood, and screw the planks together to make a box with sides about 20cm high. It should be about 1m wide - which is comfortable enough to reach across - and as long as needed.
2: Place the wooden box where you want it and get it reasonably level. Hammer small wooden pegs into the ground and screw to the planks. Logan Curtis gets busy with the screwdriver.
3: Cover the grass with cardboard, then fill the bed with layers of your materials. Start with a layer of soil, then compost, straw, manure, coffee grounds (if using), then more soil.
4: Add a good thick layer of compost on top, up to 10cm if you can get your hands on that much.
5: Ideally, let the bed settle for a couple of weeks, then start planting. Jeremy Curtis (3) celebrates finishing the raised bed.
6: Before too long you will have a raised bed filled with happy, healthy vegetables.
Raised beds are an easy way to start a vegetable garden and best of all require no back-breaking digging. Wanaka Wastebusters share their easy instructions on how to make a raised bed.
You will need: Untreated timber, pea straw or lucerne, flattened cardboard, aged manure, soil, compost and any other plant amterial that will break down, such as coffee grounds or old woolen jerseys. Don't put in uncomposted weeds, cat or dog poo. Brick or concrete blocks can also be used to build the sides of the raised bed.
Photos supplied by Wanaka Wastebusters.
