Enjoy a garden ramble with George, who lives in our equal climate in the northern hemisphere, so what he has done up there, we can apply down here in NZ.

Building a raised garden is fun and easy. Make your own pegs as shown below. Ideas from Hank and Jenny’s family garden.

Your raised edges do not have to be perfect to grow big veges.

Pitsand on the paths makes weeding the paths easy as weeds are lose.

This peg is off a cherry branch. I make all my own pegs. They cost nothing and can look natural.

I don’t buy timber edging new. I get old used timber planks or anything to hold up the soil.

Compost in garden. Used rotten timber edge. Pegs chainsawed from old branches.

A trailor load of pitsand covers a lot of path area.

Use long pegs for higher raised gardens. Pit-sand paths. Compost is used as mulch, placed over small weeds. Weeding drops to less than 10% when you regularly drop compost around your plants.

Old plywood garden edging. I use whatever I can find.

A closer look at the peg tapped low so the garden hose does not catch on it.

Weeds are thrown onto the pitsand to dry and die in the sun. Then collected. The pitsand paths can be raked.

Simple Steps

Step 1

Roughly lay out timber where you want your garden in a sunny place.

Step 2

Put down a layer of cardboard.

Step 3

Soak newspaper(optional).

Step 4

Put out a layer of newspaper (Optional).

Step 5

Put down a layer of straw or spoiled hay (Optional).

Step 6

Begin to fill with soil.

Step 7

Shovel in a trailor load of compost (0.5 cbm) from the Organic Recycling Centre managed by your City Council. In Hamilton ph (07) 846-1514. Place it on top of the soil in the raised-garden. Much cheaper than bags of garden mix. Compost contains no weeds or weed seeds.

Step 8

Plant out your vegetable plants for an instant garden.

Wealthy Idea

If you have a very tidy neighbourhood and can afford to, you could contract a builder to construct a more attractive wooden box garden.

Frugal Ideas

If you are living frugally, simply use whatever resources you can get.

Frugal Pegs

I chainsaw a bunch of short pegs to support the planks of wood in my garden. These can be any wood. They will last a few years and can look attractive.

They are quite short. I drive them in with a sledge-hammer.

These free pegs have a natural look about them.

Raised-bed gardens help prevent back problems.

In our ward, Sister Spain’s raised garden is about a metre high. She can tend the garden while standing up.