Last week I got inspired to build a garden bed into my backyard hillside using some discarded fence boards and other wood lying around my property. It took me a while to decide where to put it, but once I got going, it was mostly done within a day. I’m quite happy with the space!

First I manually pulled all the grass from the area I had previously covered with wood chips last year, hoping it to become a nice dog play area to prevent them from getting so dusty.

The sloped area where I put wood chips the year prior, but had since overgrown with grass, after I manually pulled out the grass.

There was a lot more grass to go. I usually cut it down a few times a year with an electric line trimmer, but for some reason this time I got a bit addicted to pulling it out completely.

View of the yard from the top corner.

I settled on the area just above the wood chip area and the trench I had dug out for the site of the garden bed. I pulled out the grass, and started figuring out where to dig. I decided to cut into the hillside a bit so I didn’t need to fill the bed with so much soil. But I did want to have to add soil, as the soil here is mostly hard clay that wouldn’t work very well for vegetables. I also ended up filling the base with compost from around the yard.

Raised garden bed build in progress.

Raised garden bed build in progress.

Raised garden bed build in progress.

Raised garden bed build in progress.

It turned out all right. Not the best looking bed, but functional, I hope!

Completed first raised bed using mostly salvaged wood.

Completed first raised bed using mostly salvaged wood.

View of back yard from roof showing the flood prevention trench and the first raised garden bed.