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The fastest useful thing in this catalog. Four boards, four corner posts, a box. What matters is the material choice, not the joinery.
Use cedar or redwood — untreated. Do not use pressure-treated lumber for a bed you'll grow food in. Modern ACQ treatment is far safer than the old arsenic-based CCA, but 'safer' is not 'inert', and cedar's natural rot resistance gets you 8–10 years anyway. Not worth the argument.
Also: no landscape fabric on the bottom. Leave it open to the soil so worms and roots can move through.
| Item | Qty |
|---|---|
| Cedar, 2x8, 8 ft~$14 each. Two get cut in half for the ends. Untreated — see the description. | 4 each |
| Cedar 4x4 post, 8 ftCut into four 11" corner posts. | 1 each |
| Exterior structural screws, 3", coatedMust be exterior-rated. Plain steel screws will rust through and stain the cedar within a season. | 32 each |
| Hardware cloth, 1/2" mesh (optional)Stapled to the bottom only if you have gophers or voles. Otherwise leave the bottom open. | 1 each |
Overall cost: $$. Lumber prices vary by region, species, and season, so we give a band rather than a figure we would only be pretending to know.
| Part | Qty | T × W × L |
|---|---|---|
| Long sidesCedarFull 8-ft boards, uncut. | 2 | 1 1/2" × 7 1/4" × 96" |
| End piecesCedar45" + two 1.5" side thicknesses = 48" outside width. | 2 | 1 1/2" × 7 1/4" × 45" |
| Corner postsCedarSit inside the corners. Leave 3" proud at the bottom to stake into the ground if you like. | 4 | 3 1/2" × 3 1/2" × 11" |
Some parts are longer than a 8 ft board, so there is no honest board count to show here. Open the board plan to pick a longer stock length — it names every part that does not fit.
1 board
1 board
Assumes 8 ft stock, a 1/8" saw kerf, and buying each part at its own width. Change the board size or kerf on the full board plan →
Two 8-ft boards stay full length. Cut two more to 45". Cut the 4x4 into four 11" posts.
That's the entire cut list. If the store will crosscut for you, take them up on it.
Do this before assembly, not after. Clear the grass, and get the ground reasonably flat.
A raised bed on sloped ground fills unevenly and its corners pull apart over a couple of seasons as the soil pushes on the low side.
Stand a long side and an end piece together in an L. Set a corner post inside the corner, flush with the top edge.
Drive four 3" exterior screws through each board into the post — two per board face. That's 8 screws per corner, and it is plenty.
Repeat for all four corners. Check the diagonals — equal diagonals means square, and square means the lid or any future trim will actually fit.
A few degrees out of square is fine here. Soil doesn't care.
Place the bed. If you have burrowing pests, staple hardware cloth across the bottom now.
Fill with a mix roughly 60% topsoil, 30% compost, 10% aeration (perlite or coarse bark). A 4x8x7" bed takes about 16 cubic feet — order a yard if you're building more than one, it's far cheaper than bags.
Don't seal or finish the cedar. It will silver to grey and that's exactly what you want.
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