Last year we installed one Cinder Block Raised Garden Bed. We hoped to do three but our bodies and budget gave out at one.

Great news! We built the other two raised beds this year! Yay!

There’s nothing quite like growing your own food and I’m anxious to get going again this year!

After planting a tad too early last year, we are exercising our patience and waiting for Mother Earth News to tell us when to plant. It’s really quite slick! Just head over to What to Plant Now, click on >view planting dates, enter your zip code and email address, and it will send you a handy dandy email when it’s time to plant! Pretty cool, huh?

How to Build a Cinder Block Raised Garden Bed

Here’s the area we are working on. One lonely Cinder Block Raised Garden Bed and a whole bunch of moss with a splattering of grass.

First, we laid out the cinder blocks where we wanted them.

These cinder blocks are 8″X8″X16″ from Home Depot. The long sides of the garden bed have eight cinder blocks and the ends have three for a total of 22 cinder blocks per raised bed.

Note: I called these ‘cinder blocks’ but they are actually concrete blocks.

We plan to eventually add a second row of cinder blocks to match the center raised garden bed. It isn’t necessary but would make it easier on our backs. Perhaps next year!

Of course, the ground isn’t, even so, we either dug a little of the grass out underneath or used a bit of sand to make the cinder blocks line up. It really wasn’t too bad.

Next, we used painter’s paper, from the paint section at Home Depot, in the bottom of our beds. Newspaper or cardboard works great too!

Then, a half yard of compost/topsoil mix was used to fill both beds. They aren’t completely full but it works!