10 Pain Relieving Tips for Making Raised Garden Beds

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Just before making raised garden beds.

Enthusiasm for your garden is directly related to speed and a lack of pain at the end of the day! There are lots of excellent tutorials on making raised garden beds, but this post will help you make your raised bed experience pain free (or at least reduced) by refining your plan. Include these subtle tips to make a huge difference…to your backside.

Tip #1: Just because you are basically building a box to make a raised bed doesn’t mean you should COMPLETE the box before moving the dirt into place.

Don’t do what we did.

We were asked to make raised beds. So we made raised beds:

Complete raised garden bed boxes…all four sides! No dirt.

We didn’t go one step further and think about putting the dirt into place. Rather than undoing the work, the next worker bee built a ramp on both sides. Then this worker bee (me) continued the process.

Ramp up! Ramp down!

Running a skinny ramp is no small task and takes some coordination (see tip #3).

Otherwise you run the risk of body parts making untimely contact with the wheelbarrow.

My knee should not look pregnant. Surprisingly, the jeans were fine! (See tip #4)

Instead, come up with some way of keeping the fourth end together. Attaching the bottom row with a 2×4″ board horizontal, along with a couple more appropriately placed support blocks would keep both walls together. You could fabricate a support without securing it into the raised bed. Because with all this work you don’t want to see extra holes just from the dirt fill process.

It doesn’t take much to keep the sides in place. We had a weak corner that needed an L bracket. They all do over the long term. However, we were still able to pile the dirt up because the goal is not to compact the dirt down, applying pressure to the walls. The dirt should be loose so the seeds can grow. Since the dirt is no more compact than when you dumped it out of the wheelbarrow the weight is going straight down.

This method is still doable if you intend to use fabric lining in your raised bed. You can still install it on the other three sides with a slap stapler and staples. Just leave the fourth side neatly folded and protected. Then when you’ve happily and safely rolled your dirt close to the end it is time to button it up.

Tip #2: Let your tools do the heavy lifting.

If you’ve left the dirt pile sit for any amount of time, it will compact and be harder to move. Even if you get after it minutes after they drop the load, that heavy metal door might compact one spot as the truck driver attempts to make sure all the dirt exits…and then drags the same heavy metal door over dirt pile for good measure as it leaves. 

Don’t go after the pile with a shovel like you would if you were digging into the ground. Keep your legs on the ground and save your back for shoveling loose dirt.

Instead, let gravity work for you.

Hold the shovel something along the lines of driving a stake into the ground. With arms extended, you are merely guiding where the next avalanche of dirt comes off the compacted mound of dirt.

You can check out the following short video to see exactly what I was describing:

Likewise, use a wheelbarrow wisely.

Attempt to get the load to the raised bed and dump it in place. This minimizes time arranging dirt after the fact.

Shoveling from the pile and then shoveling out at the bed is not optimal.

Shoveling twice is twice as painful! Admittedly, this was only done once for this photo. The rest of the dirt was dumped in the raised garden beds using ramps.

If you went the route we did with building four walls first, ramps will do.

If you are at the point where you can’t put any more dirt in place, you can create a ramp up and dump it over the side.

Ramp up with small loads.

At that point, small, light loads are much faster and easier to control. It is also easier on your body since you can still dump the dirt and not spend time and energy shoveling it out.

Tip #3: Keep the load in the wheelbarrow balanced.

This…

Not this…

An unbalanced load is more likely to tip the wrong direction when you are tired.

Tip #4: Wear appropriate clothing.

Jeans or tactical pants…anything heavy duty enough to handle trips and falls over the wheelbarrow or a wayward shovel. Protect your skin and your nice clothes with the right outfit. (see bloody pic above)

I realize the photo of me in the shorts does not follow this tip, but the shorts photo was taken days after I collided with the wheelbarrow. I couldn’t wear pants for a week after that hit. Or do my sets of push ups. It could have been worse without the jeans.

Tip #5: Should your wheelbarrow be empty on the way back from putting dirt in the raised bed?

Many of us have kids. A garden is a great way of:

• Teaching them where food comes from.
• How to care for something.
• Feeding them.

And when we make raised beds they are often running amuck while we are doing the work.

Although, I will proudly say THIS little four year old worked her tail off for four She-ra episodes:

Although the technique is questionable, she helped break up the dirt pile to make the job go faster.

An empty wheelbarrow that needs moving somewhere is a perfect opportunity for a wheelbarrow ride! Regular trips, such as going back to the dirt pile, is a good check in to make sure everyone is still alive.

The giggles and snuggles are priceless.

**Warning** One year olds WILL cry when the ride is over until they finally understand it will happen again. It may take several rides to convince them of this…

Maybe this tip seems misplaced in this post as adding weight to a wheelbarrow ride away from every trip from the raised bed is not pain free. However, when everyone involved is accounted for on a regular basis, no matter how much they are adding (or detracting) from the work, there is:

• Less pain in your neck as you keep tabs,
• No one is going to the hospital,
• And laughter boosts everyone’s morale.

…much like the morale boost when someone “helps” mark the rows on her side of the raised garden bed:

The optimistic planting plan.

Personally, I think her side is a bit optimistic and, therefore, the rows will look something exactly like this.

The more realistic temporary marks for planting rows of garlic.

Tip #6: Optimize every trip to the raised bed.

Do you need a shovel? Don’t forget it at the pile. Or forget it outside the bed.

Less Trips + Remembering Tools = Less Steps + Less Pain

Every time you make an extra step that is time and energy that you’ll want back at the end of the day. Of course, you’ll be more forgetful as the day wears on, but you’ll be thankful when you aren’t making an extra trip back to the raised bed.

While you want to optimize, overloading your wheelbarrow is not the way to do it. A couple extra shovels of dirt every load will eventually add up to an additional trip. However, there is a fine line between enough and too much, especially if you are going up a ramp to dump on top. Switching from a straight arm stance to push a wheelbarrow into a pushing stance to the dump dirt out requires some coordination. Changing into position can be precarious on top of a ramp with juuuuuust a little too much weight.

Not worth it.

I have a mantra I learned from playing volleyball with my dad.

Don’t get greedy.

He had a nasty underhand serve. Too high and the ball goes out. Too low and it hits the net.

It applies here.

Too little and you make too many trips. Too much and you end up hurting yourself.

Overloaded wheelbarrow.

Better to err on the side of less than more.

Tip #7: Keep a tarp or some means of weather proofing on the dirt pile.

No need to make the dirt any more compact because of rain. Or lose part of your dirt to wind.

Tip #8: Keep the width of the raised bed to a manageable level.

When it comes time to plant, weed, water and harvest, you’ll be leaning over to reach the middle.

Ibuprofen silo to assist with back pain, anyone?

You don’t want to make it too big and have to step in the raised bed. You’ll compact the soil (although that is a better option than pulling a muscle in your back). So you might want to double check your expected width dimension to make sure you are comfortable reaching to the middle.

Tip #9. Don’t worry about your coffee spilling.

No painful heartache here.

Make a cup holder:

Sink your go cup of joe in the dirt pile and get after it!

Tip #10. Ibuprofen is your friend.

Grab your silo and have it handy.

A few bumps, bruises, and general low key pain is expected. A little anti-inflammatory medicine is helpful at the end of a long day.

Remember, morale is directly related to speed and a lack of pain at the end of the project. Use these tips and optimize them further!

What tips and process improvements have you used when making raised garden beds?

Please come back and share your experience in the comments below!