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How To Create a 10×10 Vegetable Garden
If you love gardening, but you don't have a significant place to grow veggies. Don't worry; you can build a bed as small as 10X10 feet. This bed is small in size but can provide you with substantial quantities of some vegetables. There are varieties of vegetables that you can grow in your small garden.
Vegetables that can grow in small blocks or rows are the best choice for a square vegetable bed, while the tall vegetable plants such as pole beans need a proper space for their healthy growth. Not to mention, the 10X10 bed is the best square foot gardening method, and this is because; you can move this bed whenever you need to do so.
So, if you have enough space to install 10X10 beds in your garden, then don't wait for it. In this article, you can learn the whole procedure from which you can build your veggie garden.
Tools To Construct 10X10 Vegetable Garden
- Drill
- Miter Saw
- Square
- Tape Measure
- Safety Glass
- Ear Protection
- Circular saw or jigsaw
- Spade or edger
- Hoe or sod cutter
- Screw
Steps To Construct 10X10 Vegetable Garden
Step#1: Planning
It is the most crucial step. If you omit this step, then you might get failed to build a vegetable garden. Planning starts by observing the sunlight in your garden. Choose the place for installing the bed, where your veggies can intake UV rays.
The place should not be under any plant. Check different hours of the day in the garden to decide the right position for bed.
Step#2: Cut and Assemble the Frame
Firstly, you have to cut the cedarwood. Take two cedar wood pieces and cut them 2X8 by using a circular saw or jigsaw. Take the other two pieces and cut them 2X10 by using the same tool.
You have to cut them in two different sizes because they will overlap each other. The face of the longer length board will overlap the end of the shorter length board.
Drive 3-inch screws through the bottom of the short wood. Make sure they are into the face of the long wood. Attach all the sides by using a 3-inch screw on each corner. Make sure to overlap the long sides over the shorter ones.
Step#3: Square of the Frame
When the four sides get assembled, put a framing square in all four corners. Place them one at a time and adjust the frame until the corner lines up, making a square. After you finished aligning the entire frame, recheck each corner with the framing square.
Step#4: Support the Corners
When the corners shaped perfectly square, then pin the scrap slowly across each corner with 3-inch screws. This way, the wood pieces will be held in position.
Step#5: Start Marking Ground
Move the wooden frame on the area you have chosen for the garden patch. Make sure the sunlight covers that are in the daytime. Now, by using a spade or edger, mark the ground. For this, an effortless way is that mark inside and along the frame border. This way, you will have an exact size.
Step#6: Prepare the Soil
Set the wooden frame aside. Now, start scratching the area you have marked. Use a grub hoe or sod cutter, glide away from the grass from the ground.
You have to increase the drainage on the ground. Use a rotary tiller or pitchfork to turn the soil upside down.
Step#7: Place the Frame
Again move the frame back to the ground, which you have scratched out. Use a 4-foot level to check the position of the frame. Dig out the soil underneath the garden frame. Clean the soil until the frame sits, leveling on all side.
Step#8: Support the Frame
Cut 2X4 pieces of 2-foot long cedar. Create two diagonal cuts on one end of all pieces to make a point. After setting your stakes, drive them at least 18 inches into the coil along the outer side of the long side of the frame. Secure all the stakes to the bed border with the help of 3 inches screw by using a drill.
Take out the temporary corner support. Secure a stake into each corner. Tighten the stakes with screws on one of the shorter sides of bed. Leave the screws off on the shorter side.
Step#9: Fill the Bed
Remove the shorter side of the bed, which you haven't screwed. Fill the bed with a mixture of composite and soil. You can use a wheelbarrow to pour the soil inside the frame.
Level out the soil while pouring the soil. Continue filling until you filled it 2 to 3 inches from the top of the bed.
Step#10: Reassemble the Bed
Take the shorter side of the frame and place it again on the side of the bed. Use a drill or driver to secure it with the longer sides of the frame and to the stake in the corner with 3 inches screw.
Now, use a handsaw and reciprocating saw to cut the other side of each stake.
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Step#11: Plant Vegetables
Your garden bed is ready to plant veggies. Use seedlings or seeds to plant the veggies. Before planting, dig small holes for the seeds. Put the right quantity of fertilizer in the hole. Now, place the seed or seedling into it. Then cover the hole with the soil.
Step#12: Water and Mulch
After you finished planting seeds, water the whole bed. Then cover the ground of bed with mulch. You can choose mulch which one you like. Also, make sure you don't add too much mulch on the soil. A large proportion of mulch can damage your seedlings.
Planning Vegetable Bed Layout
Before planting, choose either intensive cropping or row cropping when you are planning your vegetable garden.
Row Cropping
Plant the seeds in rows, and they need to have spaces of at least 16 inches in between them so that you can maintain your garden easily. This technique will help you more with the large vegetable gardens. But the 10X10 bed also need spaces because you can't oversee every plant intensely if you merge them all. Also, rows make it easier for you to use tools in the bed.
Intensive Cropping
Intensive cropping boosts your garden productivity. In this method, you planted your seed close together in a bed, and this will help you to grow as many plants as possible.
The approach allows you to utilize every inch of the bed. It also works well for some vegetables. But most of the vegetables can't grow properly from this method, for example, cucumber.
The disadvantage of this method is that you have to maintain the bed with your hands. And this is because the plants are too close to each other.
The Bottom Line
Planting veggies is an excellent method to gain fresh and cheap vegetables at home. There are multiple methods of growing vegetables in small areas. Using bed gardens is one of them. It is the easiest method, and you can install a bed anywhere that comes in contact with the sunlight. Also, you can increase the productivity of your garden with a small veggie patch, such as 10X10 beds. Smaller beds are easy to maintain, and beginners can easily learn to plant be starting from small size.
All New Square Foot Gardening Book
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