Show me your gardens

[Certificate of Excellence]

I like to garden and eat the food I grow. This raised garden bed design is fast & easy to build and is scalable in height dependent on desired height, budget etc. My build costs ran around $188 per bed & should last a good 20-25 years.

2x6x12 = $18*9
4x4x12 = $25
topsoil = $2.50*6

effectively, you leave 6 at full length and cut three right down the middle and assemble into a rectangle screwing into the 4x4s. Typically, the garden beds I build can use one 4x4 cut evenly into four, three foot sections. If you only have 8ft length in your area, your cost will increase a bit as you’ll have to buy two 8fters. Anyhow, I assemble these in my back yard and then move them to wherever I want them, level em out and full em up.

The first I built 3 years ago and the other two I built last year. I plan on building a few more for flower beds in the front yard. I use soaker hoses that I T’d off from our my watering system so when the lawn gets watered, the garden does as well. My shade structures are made with PVC and zip ties lol. Works like a charm & cheap. The material is starting to show wear and will need to be replaced next year (I’m thinking this will last 3 seasons) but the frame is solid. I could go with a thicker material but I wanted something where sun could still make it through as well as water. The fence pyramid is just reclaimed throw away dog run panels that I use for a bean trellis. Anyhow, excited for this years garden. I just planted all my seed starters and am hoping for a solid harvest ending in lotsa pumpkins for Halloween.

what does your garden look like?’

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

With the prices of lumber *much* more rational, I built a new 1/2 bed that buttresses up to my tool shed. I repurposed some random pavers the previous owners had left stacked up behind the shed for the shed facing foundation, dumped in some yard waste and compost in the bottom, then about 5 cubic feet of soil. All in I need another 4-5 cubic feet of top soil but I’m tired so Ill do that next time I make it to Costco lol as they have a fantastic price on certified organic raised garden bed soil.

As it’s western facing & full sun, the plan is to fill it up with Chile plants from seeds varietals out of Chimayo for some chow chow in the mid summer. I’ve been musing training a couple pumpkin plants up onto the shed roof for some late summer/fall pumpkins on the roof which is humorous to see from the road .

 

[KennyPowers]

I built this in our backyard shortly after moving into our house a few years ago. The tall fence keeps the deer out, and I've since added chicken wire around the base to keep smaller critters out. Used the cap stones from an old retaining wall we had just replaced around the edge, and then some cuttings from a tree my neighbor had just cut down around the inside. The combined width of those has prevented anything from digging under the fence, and gives me something to edge against without damaging the fence.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Very nice - love the enclosure. I live in the sweet spot around my neck of the woods where there are no deer. We have a ton of mule deer around here but I’m far enough away from the mountain foothills and far enough from the river/bosque to not have to worry about them. The only critter I see around and have to contend with are stinky (literally) skunks. There is a female around here who each year brings her brood of youngins for a tour of our back yard lol. I figure by the time my son hits first grade, I’ll have picked up a dog or two (thinking about some female Beagles) which will definitely keep those stinky skunks out of my garden beds LOL

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Here’s an 2026 update on my garden. I am very happy with it this year. I am getting some great growth this year and despite the rest of the nation having some monster El Niño heat and humidity, in New Mexico we are getting rather moderate heat with added moisture for this time of year which really helps with heat-shock.

Now what I don’t necessarily recommend is seeding with purple clover. Don’t get me wrong - I LOVE purple clover and growing up on a farm in southern Ohio, my folks had literal acres and acres of this that I played and ran through. The caveat is that my wife growing up in northern NM did NOT and is having a hard time with it although it is beautiful and uses less water than the grass does haha.

Not only do I get a bazillion bumble and honey bees & beautiful purple pink flowers, my beagle loves to play in it too. Still, likely I will mow a large portion of it tomorrow in preparation for 4th celebrations. This does not really harm the grass it’s sowed in between either, so mowing simply returns it to a typical mixed turf.

Anyhow I just harvested my first tomatoes and sweet peppers, so thought I’d share an update.

 

[Kai Robinson]

Well, this isn't exactly a garden, but my wife @boopbox123 's allotment. Luckily, it's only a few hundred metres from our front door.

Our back garden wasn't big enough so she expanded!

Now, she got this in January, and pays £5 per 'rod' per year and has a 5 rod plot. One rod is roughly 272 sq/ft or 25 sq/m, so 1360 sq/ft or 125 sq/m - £55 per year. Free water, from the troughs.

There's no electricity on site, but the gates are locked and the plot came with a pre-existing greenhouse from the previous tenant.

Other than that, everything was overgrown, no vegetables growing, no flowers growing, was a totally derelict plot, save for some water butt's in a pile of brambles and a glass greenhouse on the site.

Two types of thyme, the water butt and the edge of the greenhouse.

Comes with an established Apple tree, and down the end there's raspberries, a compost heap, two plastic tubs growing all the lettuce we want, and the first of four potato planters. The plot came with three planters already, but the wife made the others from reclaimed decking procured for free from Facebook marketplace. All the paving was cheap or free from marketplace too, and the big building behind the allotment entrance is a builders merchants, she managed to get £80 of indian sandstone flagstones for £10 because they were odd ones from a broken lot - to say my wife has an eye for *ahem* 'value' is an understatement!

Two more potato planters, then squash, courgette and you can just see the brassica's in the distance. Cucumbers are growing over the arch.

Foreground - Dill, Parsley, Oregano and Sage, behind that potatoes and corn, behind that peas and tomatoes, green beans, runner beans, chard, carrots, turnips, the other brassica patch and strawberries.

The plot is divided in two parts - mostly veggies, but the wife had a plot of wild flowers by the fence, so she made a terrace. like, within two days, she decided she wanted a terrace and just...built it.

Because it's not permitted to have any permanent structures, she's levelled off the soil, compacted it, laid down sharp sand, then a layer of ready-mix cement, some chicken wire mesh, then more cement, then laid stones over the top and then finished it off with some pointing cement. All the edging timber is reclaimed decking as well. Bistro table and chairs were cheap from....yep, marketplace, sanded and paint stripped, then re-sprayed with rustoleum. It's rustic, but it's nice to sit out on the terrace now!

The arch has two clematis either side, different varieties, mostly got borage growing there now, with some nasturtium's, black eyed suzie, sweet peas and plenty of blue campanula and lobelia.

Since this was taken there's also rhubarb growing on the right hand side, with a small pond for amphibians to keep the slug population down!

Honestly, after the heatwave we've just had here (37*c!!!) i'm surprised it's doing so well, i'll do a video or some newer photo's, as this was about 6 weeks ago.

I'm really so very proud of my wife for this, she's worked so, so hard - she's had a tough time the last year and the allotment has given her something she can work that's all her own.

Best part? Eating our own home grown potatoes, courgettes, lettuce and beans! NO MONEY NEEDED!