From Chaos to Cultivation: Transforming Sloped Land into Terraced Raised Garden Beds

History:

We used to have raised beds in the backyard and grow tomatoes and cucumbers. Then we got a great dane named Ember who eats everything. We moved what we could outside the fence line and removed the raised beds.

Today:

In the fall of last year, we had fence repair done, and the installers put an enclosed section of fence behind our garage… with a gate… to keep Ember out.

Problem: The land is not flat.

In that picture, you can see that the land behind that garage slopes down to the right. It also slopes away.

Option 1: Retaining Wall

We considered, measured, and priced putting a retaining wall that would flatten out the area and allow us to build raised beds on top. It would be us putting in the retaining wall, which involves a lot of digging, leveling, setting, and filling, and THEN we could build the raised beds.

To see how high the retaining wall would need to be to bring it up to the highest point of the land, we went out at night with a laser level, and it would have raised the ground about 18 inches up the 4-foot fence. It was too high because the raised bed would have to be on top of that.

Option 2: Terraced Retaining Wall

Think big long steps. When googling, we found a lot of examples of terraced land and even terraced garden beds. The bottom line was that it seemed like too much digging, leveling, and setting… We also had another idea.

Option 3: Terraced Raised Garden Beds

The premise here is that we would build stand-alone Raised Garden Beds and then dig to make them level. This removes the need to do any retaining wall and focuses our effort (and digging) only on the specific area that raised bed sits on.

Going with Option 3

Building the Raised Beds

Using our Googlers, we found Free plans for Galvanized Raised Garden Beds with material and cut lists. They are minimal, look nice, and are easy to put together.

Dimensions: The bed dimensions were 4 feet by 8 feet. When looking at Menards inventory, we could get large galvanized sheets that are 8 feet long and small galvanized sheets that are 3 feet long. So, our beds are now 3 feet by 8 feet. I didn’t want to have to cut the galvanized sheets; they can end up sharp, crooked, and 3 feet wide, fit better into our space… and it was easier. Sometimes the materials and their measurements tell you the answers you need.

Layout: Goals of the layout were

1. The acceptable amount of garden bed area*
2. Ability to Walk to at least the long side of the raised beds
3. Rain should hit the garden beds.
4. Sun should hit the garden beds.
5. We want to store yard waste bins inside the fenced area.

* “Acceptable” is subjective. We were looking to have a vegetable garden, not to source all of our vegetables from it. Everyone is different, make the right choice for you.

Here’s what we landed with:

Clearing the Land: After the fence was built, we pulled all of the weeds and crap that had been growing back there. It had largely been a place where we had dumped clippings, leaves, failed plants, dead bushes, old tomato plants, etc. Then we covered it with cardboard to suppress anything that might grow back. I had my doubts, but this worked pretty well. We used logs and stone to hold the cardboard down.

Digging: When I want to do something better or learn, I go to YouTube. I seriously watched videos on How to Dig, and THEY HELPED. My biggest hurdle was going to be my lower back. If I approached this wrong, my back was going to say “Hell No” and tap out early. I’m happy to say that didn’t happen. Besides finishing the project, this was my happiest accomplishment of the project: not hurting my back

Digging nuggets of knowledge (acronym was accidental but awesome)

• “I lift with my legs, NOT my back”
• “Don’t try to dig to the max depth in one shot.”
• “Use the shovel to loosen the ground, then go back and clear it out.”
• “Move the dirt only as far as you need to”
• “Pace the dig: Dig a section, take a break, stretch your back, and live to dig again.”

Lining things up: I used a string line to set the boundary of the boxes and aimed to line the garden boxes right up against the fence on the south and east.

Leveling part 1: I measured out the length and width of the box with the fence as a boundary at the far side, then started digging. The lowest point of the ground was going to be the lowest point I was digging too and level everything against that.

Once I had the area mostly dug, I used my super long level to check the ground.

Leveling part 2: When I got it close (bubble mostly in the lines), I measured and dug down about 5 inches where the 4x4s were then filled with paver base. From the build of the garden beds, I selected scrap pieces of 4x4s of the same length. I used these to tamp down the paver base, then stood them on two locations and used the super long level to make sure they were… level. One thing I found was that I tended to have higher ground between the paver base area, so I dug down along the edges all the way around to make sure.

Leveling part 3: My daughter helped me carry one garden bed out; we placed it and then used the super long level to see where it was. At this point, because of the three-step-level method I used, the beds were basically level and good. We had to sit on them and use some paver base here and there for minor adjustments.

Filling the Raised Beds: We threw a bunch of old firewood, landscape rocks, chicken coop shavings, and scrap cedar in the bottom of the beds. Then we filled them with the cardboard and dirt that we moved.

We ordered “Enriched Garden Soil,” which says it is made from 50% dirt and 50% mushroom compost. Mushroom compost is also called horse manure. I didn’t know that until it arrived and the delivery guy explained that to me. I googled, and horse manure is great for gardens, so it was cool.

To calculate the fill needed, I used an online soil calculator to get the cubic yards needed. We rounded up, and because it was about three cubic yards, we ordered from a local place and got it delivered.

Moving the dirt took me a couple of hours, and we overfilled because it’ll eventually settle.

Covering the Path: We used landscape fabric over the dirt path for weed control, then covered it with cedar chips. With an online mulch calculator, we calculated the number of two cubic foot bags. We only needed 18 bags, so we picked those up at Menards, and with some help, we laid them out over the path.

That’s it. It’s ready for planting.

Funny Story: In the middle of digging the areas for the beds, I took a break and got some food. When I came back out, the chickens had wandered into the area I was digging and un-dug a bunch of the soil, looking for worms and cicada larvae. It wasn’t horrible, but a lesson was learned: chickens are jerks.