A raised garden offers beauty and style to your yard or garden, but it can also be very beneficial in many different ways. It’s a great way to add some extra height for your balcony or patio, and provides a more stable surface than regular soil does. It’s also a great addition during parts of the year when you want to keep your plants from getting trampled by the rest of your lawn or garden. You can even put in some small running water features like freshwater fish ponds if you want.
Cinder blocks can be used to build a raised garden bed and help you grow your own food. Even if you’re not a handy person, this is an easy project that can be completed in just a few hours. Here’s how to get started and build your own raised garden bed out of cinder blocks.
Step 1: Prepare your soil.
The first step in building your raised garden is to find out what kind of soil you have and make it healthy enough to grow vegetables.
First, you need to turn your existing soil into a healthy growing medium that will support the roots of your plants. To do this, get a trowel or shovel and dig up at least 5 inches deep into the ground. This may take some time if you have compacted clay or rocky soil so be patient! Once you reach down this far, go ahead and add compost until there is about half an inch left between the topsoil and subsoil (if there is any). Then turn over everything with a garden fork so it all mixes together evenly. Next up: fertilizer! Add an organic fertilizer such as blood meal or fish emulsion once every week for three weeks straight (this should be done during spring when planting takes place). Finally, cover everything back up with mulch such as straw or grass clippings (NOT sawdust).
Step 2: Prepare your cinder blocks.
Now that you have your cinder blocks, it’s time to get them in the ground. Using a level and a hammer, tap each block into the ground so it is straight. Once they are all in place, use a shovel to scrape dirt out from under each one until they are completely seated. Then fill up any voids between adjacent blocks with more dirt as needed—you want everything nice and level.
Step 3: Start building.
It’s time to start building.
In this step, you’re going to set the blocks in place and make sure they’re level, straight, square and plumb. To do that:
- Place a block flat on its side where you want it to go. If it doesn’t sit flat on its own, use some wood wedges under each corner of the block until it does. Mark where the corners of your cinder block will go with pencil or chalk so you know where to put them when laying down other blocks on top of them (see photo). This will help keep your structure level later on when you’re finished laying all of your cinder blocks in place.
- Align a second cinder block at each corner so that both are parallel with each other at right angles to where they meet at their corners (as shown in photo). Adjust each new block until they align perfectly parallel with one another before marking them for placement along the rest of their sides downward from there—you should have four marks total by now: two per side from where previous blocks were placed into alignment next to one another vertically up from their respective corners horizontally across from them diagonally away from those points downward toward ground level below which this last row will continue onward until reaching bottom level beneath all other rows above it
Step 4: Begin adding soil and plants.
If you’re planting seeds, follow the directions on the seed packet. If you’re transplanting plants, gently remove them from their pots and place them in the soil, then water them until water comes out of the bottom of each pot hole. Now that your raised garden is built, it’s time to start growing.
You should keep a close eye on your garden over its first few weeks as it gets established in its new location and starts growing new roots. For best results, add fertilizer to help get things going quicker—but be sure not to use too much or else your plants might die. After this initial period is over, there’s not much else for you to do except enjoy watching all your hard work pay off.
Building a raised garden bed is fairly simple if you have the right materials and tools.
Building a raised garden bed is fairly simple if you have the right materials and tools.
- Make sure you have enough space to build your raised garden bed.
- Make sure your design will last for years to come so it will be able to hold both soil and plants for as long as possible without getting damaged or falling apart on its own (because let’s face it – gardens aren’t permanent).
- Make sure that any tools needed are easy to find, especially since most people don’t keep these kinds of things around anymore unless they’re specifically looking for them; if this doesn’t apply then skip this step entirely but remember that all good projects start with preparation first before anything else so don’t forget about this important step either! Yup…and we still haven’t even started building yet but when we do we need all our materials ready too which means having some good plans ahead of time like knowing what kind(s) they might want too.
- Final words
As you can see, building a raised garden bed is fairly simple if you have the right materials and tools. With just some cinder blocks, every homeowner can construct their own raised garden bed with little trouble. Hopefully this guide has taught you how to build a raised garden out of cinder blocks so that you can start your own.
