
Difficulty
Intermediate
Duration
Over 1 day
A colorful garden is a delight in any yard. Here, you can learn how to build a low-maintenance garden bed that has the added bonus of keeping its colors for three seasons.
Download a PDF of this project, and visit the Garden Club for more gardening projects.
SELECT A LOCATION

- Pick a spot that gets lots of sun to help promote plant growth.
- Use a garden hose or rope to lay out the size and design of your garden bed. You can also choose to outline your design with powdered chalk or marking paint.
- With a sharp shovel or pickaxe, remove the top layer of turf in small, manageable sections. Relocate the cut turf to another part of your yard or flip it upside down for added compost material.
- Break up the soil beneath and remove any large rocks.
PLACE WALL BLOCKS

Tip: For more details on the techniques used to build a garden bed using wall blocks, see our Garden Club project.
- Using a flat blade shovel or hoe, level and smooth the area where the garden wall blocks will go.
- Apply a 1-inch layer of leveling sand or paver base, and lay the first run of wall blocks.
- Stack the blocks to the desired height.
ADD SOIL

Add premixed garden soil. Plants and flowers will naturally push up the soil up as they grow, so add more soil to give additional height to your garden bed.
ADD PLANTS OR SEEDS

We recommend these colorful options:
- Tall yellow flowers: Daylilies
- Tall orange flowers: Asiatic lilies
- Purple flowers on left: Salvia
- Red flowers: Roses
- White flowers: Daisies
- Pink flowers: Hydrangeas
- Purple flowers on right: Phlox