Building a raised bed vegetable garden out of recycled wood decking in Miami



Scareabella keeps birds and pests away

For many months my wife has been after me to build her a raised vegetable garden in our backyard and this was the final product. It took some proper planning but the overall presentation was more than I envisioned.

It started with reclaimed wood I rescued from a LEED home project in Lighthouse point. The Zahn family were building a new LEED home on the water and were about to use a more durable and sustainable material for their dock. So I asked them if they would mine if I hauled the old pressure treated wood back to my house so I can reuse it in some future home projects I wanted to do. They said OK.

One Saturday afternoon I got inspired to make the raised bed garden. It was quick and easy to put together in a few hours. I am sometimes up hauled when I see locals selling these same gardens for almost $500 when you can put in 3 hours of light work and less than $50 in materials and do it yourself. The wood was braced with joining brackets on all four sides and leveled before the ground installation.

My deck was done and it was ready to be installed. I cleared an area of grass and put a weed blocker under before I filled the bed with a mixture of the original soil dug out and some new organic soil  bough at Home depot. The soil  filled up to 6 inches from the bottom.

Plants in the Bed:

We started our vegetable garden with Tomatoes,parsley,thyme,Bib lettuce,Mexicali and Bonnet peppers,arugula,and basil. Watering technique was something  I learned from my next door neighbor's mom who raised and sold organic herbs and vegetables through her company Anna's annuals that watering these plants the traditional way was incorrect. The correct way was to soak the soil around the plants so it stays moist then give it a light mist and you are done.

We have been enjoying are garden every day as it grows. We pick what is ready to eat for the day and in the future will be building future gardens to grow other vegetables.

Note on SCARE-ABELLA:

Our daughter named this scarecrow we purchased at Target in memory of the chicken we had over a year ago called ISA-BELLA. She is keeping out the birds and pests quick nicely. I do not claim to be a handyman by all means,however building this garden was a family fun project.

Miami Green Homes is copyrighted and the official blog for Smart Growth Realty. SGR is a green real estate company based in Miami Dade County and a leader in sustainable residential real estate.