Although I was always searching for alternatives to buying wood to make raised beds, such as using logs to form bed borders, I found I could fit 8-foot boards in my small car, and made two large boxes for the garden.

My method of making hilly piles in hugelkulture style kept eroding, and I was losing moisture and planting space in the same area where a large box could capture just as much soil.

I set them up as tomato beds and for other tall things like artichokes. I put tree trimmings in the boxes before covering them with soil.

These boxes are 4×8 foot, 10 inches high. The contents will need a season to mature; right now the soil is dry even after a thunderous rain.

Seeing as I ran out of grass clippings, I ised whatever I could find for mulch.

On the left: Jerusalem artichoke are struggling after being transplanted; peppers and eggplant are hidden amongst the “debris.”

New garden beds by mehron is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International