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tear down the raised garden bed and build raised garden planters to replace it. the raised garden bed was good, but we feel that the raised garden planters will be easier to maintain and use less water. they are 28" high which should keep the rabbit out of them; it was difficult to keep it out of the raised bed.

this took a precedence over the dining table due to planting time here in SoCal. it is now, if not a bit late.

i built the first raised garden planter last weekend and filled it with our new planting mix. we decided we did not need such deep planters for most of the garden, so i purchased new wood for the sides yesterday. the cedar planks for the sides on the first planter were 7.25" wide, these new cedar planks are 5.5" wide making the new planters 10.5" deep (minus the bottom board). plenty for most garden plants. the first planter will be used for root vegetables like carrots as they need a deeper bed.

most of the wood is recycled from the walls of the old raised garden bed. you will see those as the 2x8's.

this first pic shows the tear down and first planter box:
this is the 1.5 tons of material i have moved so far, along with the asparagus and strawberries we are trying to save to put into the new planters (dirt and 1" rock for bottom drainage):
the three planter boxes i built today; they are 28" high and 14.5" wide and 41" long and a planting depth of 10.5" deep. the first planter box is the same, except it is 43" long and has a planting depth of 14.5". assembled with deck screws, recycled 2x8 and newly purchased 5.5"x6'x5/8" cedar fence planks cut to length. they have small gaps along the middle and where the cedar sides are attached to promote drainage and avoid warping due to swelling from moisture and temp changes.
the next step was to wash some of the 1" rock and place it in the bottom of each planter to aid with drainage:
then add weed block to line the inside of the planter box, this keeps soil from contacting the wood directly and delays deterioration and keeps the dirt out of the rock:
here are the three new planter boxes in place. the goal is to put two close together and then a space for access, then two more...follow the pattern. this gets access to all the planters which was an issue with our raised planter bed.
i need to mix our planting mix from the old topsoil and fill these planters. the mix is about 25% vermiculite, 33% peat moss and the remainder topsoil that was removed from the old planter bed. you can see from the pile in the second pic above i will need nowhere near as much soil for these planters and will still have the same space for plants. it looks like i can fit 3 more planter boxes once i remove the rest of the raised planter bed. we have been waiting until i get some of the new raised planter boxes done so we can move more strawberry plants and the parsley that is left there. for the rest of the planter boxes i will need to buy new lumber, i do not have enough left from the old raised bed.

i will post a pic once i get the remainder of them completed and we have some plants in and have irrigation figured out. if anyone has had success with drip irrigation for planter boxes or gardens i would like to hear about it.

That is a lot of work, but it looks like it's really coming out nicely. I don't have a green thumb and so I'm impressed with anyone who can grow anything. I'm a little concerned about that retaining wall; I would prefer if it was made of concreted because I worry that rain will erode and make it more severe, dragging unwanted dirt into your backyard and garden. More importantly, I don't like that the back of your property isn't level. Do you have any problems with flooding? I had a sump-pump in my first home and my life was absolute hell. Never again.

thx, it should be much easier to maintain than the raised bed.

no issues with the wall or dirt. remember i am in socal, not very much rain. it was far worse when we did not have that wall, and putting it in added quite a bit of flat, usable area to the back yard. by now everything that was going to wash down the hill has. the wall type is a lag wall, same kind of thing used in mines to shore up walls. it has been up for 6+ years, but we do plan to put in a concrete block wall eventually. the boards are 3x12x8, very thick.

one reason we selected this lot was to not have neighbors on top of us, although our neighborhood is far better than others here. the hill gave us that space, but it sucks to keep the weeds down.

I was raised in rental apartments for all of my childhood and teenage years and continued to live in rentals throughout my 20's and 30's so needless to say I never became a "Mr. Handy" around the house. LOL

We are kinda done with the garden, but there are still some plants left to go in. I also still have a couple planter boxes to make out of the leftover cedar for my wife's mint and need to drill a plastic planter for some lettuce that will stay more in the shade. I still need to determine how I am going to get water to the raised boxes.

The only solution that immediately comes to mind is using a nail to drive holes in an old garden hose and then laying it across the back of the planters. You would need to secure the hose with small brackets or wire. But, it's probably an unsightly and inelegant solution.

well, a bit more to it than that. i need to decide if i am running hard pipe, i.e. pvc schedule 40, to the planters themselves or using the 1/2" drip type tubing. i need to decide if i am going to add another valve to the irrigation manifold and control it with the irrigation timer already in place, or just tag on the the irrigation supply line and use a battery timer/control. this decision determines if i need a pressure regulator where i connect to the water supply.

then i need to determine the details of actually putting water into the planters. lots of options there, and we want some type of control that allows manually turning the water on for each planter box as well as the weather may dictate more water at times.

Yeah, if you going to go with an elaborate system like that then I would say you want to do it right the first time. I would make sure to set it up so that it's on a timer with the right amount of water pressure. As to how to turn it on/off for certain boxes? This conversation is above my pay grade already. Like I said, I would run a hose with holes in it and buckle it down across the boxes. Turn it on/off at the spigot as needed. But, what you're proposing sounds awesome if you know what you're doing and can pull it off.

That’s a whole lot of work that came out looking really great in the end . I like the raised garden box idea , it just might keep the tomato spiders away. We use to have a garden and it was fun growing all kinds of vegetables. My favorite was growing large zucchini. They would get up to over 2 feet long ! Then, slice them up, add some butter and seasoning , wrap in tin foil and grill it for about 10 minutes a side . Mmmmmm. Mmmm!

Other than that I noticed this place may not be in San Diego. I would give it a couple few years before the wood barrier is showing dry rot , and a few more before it starts needing some attention. I would have gone with the cement bricks for about a buck each - with iron rods to hole it up. Just Saying

it keeps no insects at bay. still get aphids, ants, horworms (although none this year). but i does keep the rabbits out.

it was made with pressure treated, ground contact rated wood. block, etc. would not look as good (my opinion).

Yeah sometimes it’s hard to get some good results from your garden. So many things can go wrong that can ruin the crop - and the whole season. One time I grew a small corn crop , it was looking good too! But after the white butterflies came along - I found corn earworms in every ear of corn. Same with the Tomato Spiders. But I found peppers are good to grow. Like Bell Peppers, Jalapeno's and other hot peppers.

our peppers cannot be killed. jalapeno and serano, bell peppers on the other hand are quite a bit more delicate (plus i am not at all keen on them). a lot of the garden suffered this year due to the heat. before next summer the goal is to put up a gazebo structure over the garden area to provide partial shade for the plants. the sun is just getting too scorching hot in the summer.

Right , My mother would put a mesh top over her orchids to keep the heat out - and it save her plants. I think a garden shade kit might work well for what you have going on there - for the time being. Especially, if you live up in the high desert. It gets super hot up that way - but when it rains it pores. I think that’s the gist of it , I never spent too much time up there. I gather it’s mostly dry heat. I move out of Rancho Cucamonga CA in 2020 and moved near Daytona Beach Florida. It’s a totally different climate over this way where the weather can change from one day to the next. And the wind blows in all directions