How to Make a Raised Bed Tomato Garden

Grow tomatoes in raised beds for easier gardening.

Raised garden beds offer several advantages over a traditional in-ground vegetable garden. Raised beds provide good drainage and allow you to customize the soil mix, providing the right nutrients for your plants. Gardening is easier in a raised bed, requiring less bending to reach the plants, and the soil warms earlier than the rest of the ground, allowing earlier planting. Use sturdy planks to build raised beds. Redwood and cedar are two woods that offer beauty and rot resistance in outdoor uses.

Things You'll Need

• 4-by-4 redwood or cedar boards
• 2-by-6 redwood or cedar boards
• Wood screws
• Screwdriver
• Shovel
• Landscape fabric or hardware cloth
• Planting soil mix
• Tomato plants or seeds
• Garden stakes

Instructions

1. Cut the boards to the lengths needed for your raised bed, or have them cut for you at the lumber yard or home and garden store. You will need four 16-inch lengths of 4-by-4 for the corner posts, four equal lengths of 2-by-6 for the sides and four equal but shorter lengths of 2x6 for the ends to form a rectangular bed. Measure your garden plot to determine the size of bed you need before you cut the wood.

2. Affix one corner post to the end of one of the shorter 2-by-6 pieces with wood screws. Repeat with another corner post at the other end of the board. Do the same with another of the short 2-by-6 pieces so you have two short boards with two corner posts each.

3. Attach one of the longer 2-by-6 boards to the adjoining edge of one of the corner posts, forming a 90-degree angle with the end board. Screw the other end of the long board to the corner of the other end piece to form three sides of the bed. Repeat on the other side with another long board.

4. Add a second layer of boards above the first layer, following the same pattern until the box is complete with four corner posts, two short boards on each end and two long boards on each side. The bed should be 12 inches high, with the corner posts projecting another 4 inches beyond the boards.

5. Measure and mark where each corner post will be in the garden. Dig a 6-inch hole for each post. Place the bed in the garden with the posts in the holes and fill in the dirt around the posts.

6. Line the bottom of the box with landscape fabric to suppress weeds. Use metal hardware cloth if your area is susceptible to gophers and moles.

7. Fill the garden box with garden soil mix. Tomatoes prefer an acidic soil with a pH of 6.0 to 6.8. Incorporate plenty of organic matter, such as well-rotted manure, mulch and peat moss, into the mix.

8. Plant tomato seeds or transplant tomato starts into the garden. Water well and stake any plants that require extra support as they grow.

Tips & Warnings

• Position your box in an area that receives full sun during the day, away from buildings or trees that will shade the garden.

• Install drip watering to provide a more efficient irrigating system for the plants.

• Add fertilizer to the soil and till it in well. Do not add it directly near the plants' roots, as the fertilizer can harm roots through direct contact.

References

• Sunset: The Perfect Raised Bed
• This Old House: How to Build a Raised Planting Bed
• National Gardening Association: Gardening Prep for Tomatoes