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Easy Flower Planters and Beds
Step-by-step directions with pictures make it easy to build simple planters and beds for flowers in yards and landscapes using four different methods.
Enhance your yard and showcase your efforts by planting your flowers in well-defined beds.
Here you’ll find complete demonstrations of how to build three different types of flower garden beds with clear directions, for fast and easy perfect results.
Used these skills to build on-ground and raised-bed planters and to terrace hillside or sloped garden sites.
In-Ground Planters and Beds
The first step-by-step building project shown is for making a beautiful, brick-edged, in-ground planting bed.
The native soil in most regions is suitable for flowers, provided that it drains well. To prepare it for planting and make the bed distinctive, follow the steps shown.
Raised-Bed Planters
The second and third building projects show two ways to build common types of simple raised beds.
If your site is on a hill or your soil is rocky, filled with clay, or poor for flowers, consider building raised beds. They’re an ideal answer to both problems. Fill the raised-bed planter with rich, loose-textured soil containing lots of humus or other organic matter, and it will make a fine home for your flowers.
Hillside Terraces and Sloped Sites
The same techniques used for building raised beds are also useful for terracing hillside sites.
If your flower garden site is on a slope, rain might erode your soil or leach valuable nutrients out of it.
Create flat terraces by building a low wall on the downhill side, making level tables of plantable soil behind them uphill.
On the other hand, if your site is located in a cleft or gully, the soil likely contains too much clay and will drain poorly.
Build raised-bed type walls across the dip or water channel to block it, making a level planting area. Always install surface drains on the uphill side attached to sub-surface pipes channeling water around the barrier. That prevents flooding and standing water in the bed.
Positioning Planters and Beds
For best results, align your beds as closely as possible to an East–West line so the sun gives each plant equal light throughout the day.
If prevailing winds come into your garden from one direction, choose a location near a fence or wall, or consider a screen or trellis with vines on that side to block the wind from damaging your flowers.
Too much wind dries foliage and blooms.
To limit fungal disease problems on flowers grown in in-ground or raised beds, always allow sufficient space for good air circulation between individual plants and between the plants and any structure.
Once you choose your location and project type, investing a few hours of time and effort in improvements to make it perfect will increase the beauty of your garden and your enjoyment and appreciation of its flowers.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Building In-Ground Beds
In-ground beds are the fastest and easiest planters to build for most gardens on sites with fertile, well-textured soil.
When making island beds in an existing turfgrass lawn, always remove the turf before building the bed. On existing garden sites with soil surfaces, proceed directly to excavating the footing around the bed’s edge.
To build your in-ground planter, gather a shovel, rake, level, bags of sand, porous landscape fabric, amendments, fertilizer, PVC pipe, primer, solvent, and bricks, then follow these steps:
How to Build an In-Ground Planting Bed
In areas with turfgrass lawns, use a turfing tool or shovel to remove the grass, sod, and roots.
Start by cutting the turf in a straight line with a straight-edged shovel. Work the turfing tool under the grass to cut the sod and grass roots below the soil line.
Roll up turf sections and remove them from the work area.
Double dig or till the bed with a mechanical tiller to loosen its soil at least 12 in. (30 cm) deep.
Turn the soil twice, digging or tilling at right angles until the whole bed is loose and pliable.
Add amendments and fertilizers as surface layers over the native soil in the bed.
Work them into the top 12 in. (30 cm) of soil.
If desired, connect in-ground irrigation or low-voltage lighting systems before proceeding.
Space irrigation risers every 8 ft. (2.4 m) along the edge of the bed. Run irrigation drip lines from the risers to the future location of each plant or plant group.
Bury low-voltage cable along the outer edge of the bed’s border, connect lighting fixtures, and place them on the surrounding soil.
Define the bed and keep it free of lawn grass by building a perimeter edge of brick or coping stones. These edgings divide the bed from its surrounding turf and simplify care.
Here bricks were set diagonally in sand along a trench at the bed’s border.
As brick are set, place lighting fixtures in their final locations.
Three Ways to Build Raised Flower Beds
Three methods for building raised beds both produce attractive additions to any flowering landscape.
The first method demonstrated uses heavy timbers fastened with galvanized pipe pins to build strong, durable, structural landscape planters that are ideal for flower borders. The pipe serves two purposes: It fastens the timbers together and anchors the planter to subsurface soil. Minimal excavation is needed.
The second method demonstrated is a post-and-plank raised bed. Because it uses finished lumber instead of structural timbers, it’s suitable for painting and placement next to wooden decks or masonry patios. Always use a decay-resistant wood, such as cedar, redwood, or eucalyptus when building post-and-plank beds.
The third method of building a bed uses fieldstone boulders to create a natural edge around an area filled with planting soil.
To build your planter using either method, gather a power saw, electric drill, spade bit, sledgehammer or mallet, structural timber, landscape fabric, and the other materials described, then follow these steps:
How to Build a Raised Bed with Timbers
Measure and mark the outline of the planter with flour or marking paint.
Excavate trench footings 8 in. (20 cm) deep. Removing and set aside the removed soil for later amendment and fertilizing.
Line the footing trench with landscape fabric to prevent roots from penetrating the structure.
If burrowing rodents are a problem, line the bottom of the planter with 1/4‑in. (6‑mm) wire mesh hardware cloth.
Add a layer of pea gravel to the trench, 4 in. (10 cm) deep.
Lay a first course of timbers, overlapping them to create flush corners. Use a power drill fitted with a 7/8‑in. (22‑mm) spade bit, drill holes vertically, 8 in. (20 cm) from each end of the timbers.
Lay a second course of timbers, overlapping them log-cabin fashion over the first course’s joints to avoid aligned joints. Mark and drill through the timbers to extend and join the first course’s holes.
Temporarily install a threaded end cap on a length of 1/2‑in. (12‑mm) galvanized pipe, 32 in. (80 cm) long. Using a sledgehammer, drive it through the aligned holes and into the soil underlaying the bed. Remove the cap and repeat at each hole.
Use the sledgehammer to drive each pipe flush with the timber. Repeat at each pair of holes. Fill the bed with soil and allow it to settle. Top off after settling, preparing the bed for planting flowering plants.
How to Build a Post-and-Plank Raised Bed
Mark the outline of the bed, then level and excavate the area within the future bed to a depth of 18 in. (45 cm).
Remove and reserve the soil for later amending and fertilizing.
Use a power drill fitted with a 1/4‑in. (6‑mm) bit to drill three staggered holes through two sides of each of the four 4 x 4-in. (89 x 89-mm) corner posts and through one side of each side-support post, planning for a side post every 4 ft. (120 cm).
These will hold the lag screws and bolts that fasten each corner junction and support each side plank.
Thread a washer onto each lag screw and fasten the the side planks to the side support posts, using a socket wrench. For added durability, throughbolt the bed timbers to the corner posts with bolts, washer, and nuts.
Set the assembled bed in pre-dug post holes and level the assembly. Fill around the posts with pea gravel for drainage to prevent wood rot.
Line the planter with landscape fabric, and fill with the reserved and amended soil. Level and rake the bed.
If desired, add a seat rail made of 2 x 6-in. (38 x 140-mm) lumber, cut at 45° angles from their joints at the outside corners.
Flush the seat rails to the outside edge of the side planks of the raised-bed planter. Fasten them to the posts and planks with lag screws every 12 in. (30 cm).
Water the soil thoroughly to settle and firm it before planting. Plant the finished raised bed.
Prevent weed growth, insulate the soil, and retain moisture for your flowers by applying mulch around the plants in a 2-in. (5-cm) layer.
Leave bare soil in a 3-in. (75-mm) circle around each plant to prevent direct contact with their stems.
How to Build a Raised Bed of Fieldstone
Use flour, marking paint, or stakes and string to define an irregular triangle, about 50 sq. ft. (4.5 sq.m.) in area, within an existing landscape bed or lawn.
In turfgrass areas, use a cutting tool to remove sod.
Excavate the site to a depth of 8–10 in. (20–25 cm).
Excavate holes about 8 in. (20 cm) deep at corners of the triangle and points about a third of the distance along each side.
Reserve the removed soil for later amendment and reuse.
Fill each hole with a layer of bedding sand 3 in. (75 mm) deep.
Select pairs of fieldstone boulders, each roughly 16–24 in. (40–60 cm) in diameter.
Place a pair into each hole at narrow diagonals to the edge of the bed, rocking them into the sand.
Amend and fertilize the native soil removed during excavation.
Backfill the bed area with soil about 1 ft. (30 cm) deep.
Allow the soil to spill around and through the boulders, sloping gently from the bed to beyond the triangle defined by the fieldstone rocks.
Add occasional rocks inside the bed as features between its future flowers.
These objects of visual interest add to the natural appearance of the bed.
Water the soil thoroughly to settle and firm it before planting.
Plant the finished raised bed.
When grown in, the boulders will peek through the cascading flowers of the finished bed.