Rolling Raised Garden Beds
Last weekend Chris found a gentleman selling strawberry shipping containers on Facebook Marketplace for $33 each. So we took a little road trip a few towns over and strapped them in the back of the truck. Our garage is undergoing a renovation so we recently had to dismantle our old planter box that sat in front of our garage in order to add the siding. These rolling raised garden beds seemed like the perfect opportunity to start a small kitchen garden.
We stopped at Lowe’s and picked up some heavy duty swivel casters to add to the base of them so we could easily move them if we wanted.
If you are wanting to make your own raised beds. Here are the dimensions of the shipping crates we used for this project:
4.75′ L x 3.6′ W x 2.16′ H
Over the weekend we prepped them for paint by sanding them down and then adding two coats of exterior latex paint to match our house accent color.
After the paint had cured we lined them with garden bed liner using a staple gun.
To make them not so heavy to move around Chris added a base filler of branches and cardboard to less than half the base. This will allow the beds to be easily moved. There’s no reason you need a bed full of soil especially when they are this deep. I’ve even seen some people use pool noodles as well.
Soil Breakdown for Each Raised Bed:
2 bags inexpensive top soil just enought to cover the filler base
2 bags compost
3 bags potting soil
1 garden vegetable soil
I was about to order some plant labels from Amazon but last night after dinner I decided to just pop into Dollar Tree to see if they had anything. Sure enough they did! And I saved $7 by getting these instead. I used a sharpie marker to write the names of each plant. That way when watering they will stay put.
Once the soil was evenly layered we started planting our vegetables. We went with things we knew we would eat. There’s only two of us so we didn’t want to go overboard. I’ll be doing a full detailed blog on what we planted very soon. We have a few more things to add to this overall area this coming week including some trellises. Here’s a quick peek at one of the beds.
Raised garden beds are such an easy way to dip your toes into the world of gardening. Even if you don’t want to plant a full bed you can easily grow vegetables in containers. It’s already so rewarding and we haven’t even harvested anything yet. Using these shipping crates is an easy and sustainable way to get started. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box.
Be sure to fly on by my friends’ blog posts below for our monthly Good to Be Home Blog Hop!
Thank you so much for flying by today. Happy planting!
xoxo,
Robyn
If you missed last month’s blog hop click here!
8 Comments
Lynn
I love these! What a great idea!
robynssouthernnest
Thank you Lynn!
Becky
This is such a great idea, Robyn. I never would have thought to use those crates like that.
robynssouthernnest
Thank you Becky! They were a great price and perfect for just getting started!
Jen @ JENRON DESIGNS
I love that you made your raised gardens rolling to catch all the sun as it changing over the season. That is a brillant idea and so smart!
robynssouthernnest
Thank you Jen! Yeah our last planter in front of the garage was stationary and so this time we thought we’d get things rolling. lol!
Emily Baker
OHHHHH – these are fabulous! We have made some raised beds before but I never thought to add wheels – brilliant idea! Love the color too!!!!!
robynssouthernnest
Thank you Emily! Yeah we wanted to be able to move them if need be.