Welcome to DIY magazine. Each entry covers a new home improvement project. Here, DIY enthusiast Camille Stiles turns to garden bed ideas to transform her hillside backyard into a European-style garden.
Lifestyle designer Camille Stiles has always dreamed of going to her garden and picking herbs and vegetables from her garden. Passionate about cooking, she likes to add bases to her dishes. But he couldn't always find specialty herbs and vegetables like the precious little lettuces he saw in grocery stores and farmers' markets when he moved to California.
“I'm having trouble finding them in Austin. "So I'm excited to grow things that I love to cook," says Camille Stiles, founder of the lifestyle site. She can't wait to get her two kids involved and "get our hands dirty together." The Old Farmer's Almanac and other online resources cover Austin's climate "Reading about another part of the country tells you nothing," says Stiles, who ranges from warm to freezing temperatures to pinpoint relevant information.
Inspired by his mom and sister, both gardening enthusiasts, Stiles decided to turn their hillside yard into a rooftop garden with triple wooden flower beds. Here's a step-by-step guide to bringing your raised garden bed ideas to life.
To make a raised garden bed with your own hands, you will need:
Step 1: Clear the space and design the bed
Before Stiles can start planting his imaginary garden, he has to clean up his garden. Because the house is on a high hill, it sits on a foundation with a retaining wall 30 feet below. The lower ¾ of an acre was previously consumed by brush and has been cleared in recent years leaving a large open area. Camille and her husband then used white spray paint to mark the rectangles where each of the three flower beds would be placed. They wanted to leave enough space between each flower bed to fit a wheelbarrow, which ensured that each flower bed would be in the sun at different times of the day.
Step 2: Bring the soil
Since the cart could not climb the hill from Özboshal, all loads had to be brought down the hill by wheelbarrows. The armature helped determine how to distribute the area to create a level space. "It's actually quite surprising how much dirt we have to shovel," Stiles says. After the land arrived, Stiles hired a professional to create the patio. Previously, her husband used the same white spray paint to define the curves of the patio to give their yard a "soft, organic feel."
Step 3: raised bed frame
When creating the terrace, the couple tried to be strategic about the size of the beds based on the materials used. They chose Lowe's cedar planks because they are affordable, last up to 10 years and are easier to cut than tropical hardwoods like teak. Styles decided that three rectangular beds would each be 8 feet by 4 feet and chose 8-foot cedar planks to minimize cuts and make the job easier. "We have to make a cut to get them the right length," Styles explains.
The long sides of the bed consist of four 8-foot boards and the short sides of four 4-foot boards (two 8-foot boards cut in half each). Camille's husband and father-in-law constructed the bed using the Lincoln log method, with each corner sitting at right angles below the top corner. Using a drill, they drive rebar into the ground from each corner to stabilize the flower bed. The top panel has been left clear on one side making the touch invisible and creating a smooth flat finish.
Step 4: Fill the Bed and Install the Sprinkler
Camille fills each flower bed with 16 to 20 bags of “healthy, nutrient-rich” potting soil and compost. Since the Texas sun can be brutal, he installed drip sprinklers to cover all the plants with water. These sprinklers are basically pipes that go under the top layer of soil, reaching the roots and soil to deliver water in a more environmentally friendly way. “Use less water to hydrate plants as well or more efficiently,” says Stiles.
Step 5: Pour the gravel
After setting up the sprinkler, Stiles sprinkles fine gravel into the ground around the flower bed. He chose loose pea gravel over a gravel patio because it's low maintenance and creates a "true European backyard look." Stiles and her husband brought a dump truck full of gravel and pushed it down the hill into the yard. After they pour it into the ground, they spread it out and walk on it, which is the best way to spread gravel so your feet don't sink into it, advises Stiles. "It's going to be tough at first. Then as it's used it builds up and becomes a non-submersible surface," he says.
Step 6: Plant!
"It was the most exciting day," said Stiles, who chose Eden Brothers seedlings and plant mix. He wanted to dedicate a raised bed of flowers, an herb and a vegetable. Of course, the best plans don't always work. "I went to kindergarten and fell in love with everything and wanted to buy everything. I threw my square meter gardening plan out the window and took a little more than I expected “Stiles explains.
For herbs, he planted parsley, dill, fennel, mint, basil, cilantro, thyme and rosemary. "I had all the herbs I needed for my meal and they really thrived," Stiles says. "Every week I go downstairs and cut off a big clump of each herb and store it in jars on my kitchen counter."
For greens, he focused on the many varieties of squash that “have taken over flowerbeds like a little shop of horrors .” He planted tomatoes and peppers, which didn't work out very well. But a flower bed full of zinnias means there are always fresh flowers on the dining table.
Trying out a DIY raised bed was an important lesson in style: plants that don't and stress-free for those that do. “I decided that I would have more fun doing what interests and excites me and treating it as an experience,” Styles says. "I wasn't really going to sweat the small stuff over things that might not have worked out." No doubt she is already hard at work planning her spring garden.
It originally appeared in Architectural Digest
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