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If all you need from your D.I.Y. garden bed is a space to grow plants in your backyard, we can help. But what if you’re after something a little different, or have the seed of an idea you’re not sure you can pull off? We asked two Workshop community members who created amazing garden beds from scratch to share their tips.
When Neil Derbyshire (@nidge) moved into his home in the beachside suburb of Maroubra, NSW, he did up the house first and left the garden unloved. “Outside was a big letdown – I’d never go out there,” he says. It’s a different story these days, with an array of southeast Asian inspired planter boxes and seating to admire. The vibrant planters are loaded with tropical palms, agave, birds of paradise, elephant ears, cordylines, monstera and more. As for the beach vibe, it’s fully built in. “People say as soon as they walk in they feel relaxed – that’s magic for us,” Neil says.
Getting started wasn’t exactly cruisy, though. With a deck already built and blocking access to the garden, soil had to be brought in by hand. “One day, we shifted six cubic metres of soil by buckets,” he says. But he took to it straight away. “There’s a photo of me having a cup of tea in the garden at quarter past five on a winter’s day, and I didn’t come in until 10pm that night,” he says. “I just got so into it.”
Having limited background knowledge to draw on for building his dream garden – “I’d never done anything like this in my life” – Neil researched as much as he could online and leaned on his local Bunnings team members for expert advice. “They were so helpful with things I wouldn’t have a clue about,” he says. “Little tips, like when I was spray-painting the back fence, putting a quarter of a cup of water in the paint pot so it sprays easier. Lining your boxes, the special screws that wouldn’t get corroded by the chemicals in the treated wood, things like that.”
One thing Neil learned was respect for power tools after his mitre saw went rogue when he forgot to lift the guard one groggy morning. “The blade hit the guard, the guard flew over into the neighbour’s garden and the blade was running round…that was a big wake-up,” he says. Neil remembers feeling too impatient to wait six days for replacement parts. “I went and bought its big brother! I wanted to get stuck in,” he says.
With no rubble, bricks or gravel to hand and only a layer of cardboard boxes to deter weeds, Neil filled his raised garden beds with soil to the ground. “I bought the best soil I could get in bulk, and the garden thrived,” he says. For lining the boxes, Neil upcycled polycarbonate sheets left over from a roof over the deck that had recently blown down in a storm. “It prolongs the life of the wood and gives the plants an extra bit of protection,” he says.
All up, the wrap-around planter boxes with built-in seating took Neil six full weekends to complete. “Once we put the lighting in, the place came to life,” he says. “The garden in the daytime is beautiful, and at nighttime it’s like a wonderland.” In fact, Neil and his partner were so happy with the results that they decided to get married in the space. “Friends who came from interstate for the wedding were absolutely blown away – they couldn’t believe it was the same place.” The next step in the backyard transformation project? “Maybe next year we’ll seal off one end of the deck and put in an outdoor kitchen with a barbecue,” he says. For now, he’s enjoying the serenity. “At the weekends we sit out there, having a cuppa,” he says. “I love it.”
Tim Jeffries (@timjeffries) got exactly what he wished for from his garden bed project, which doubles as a front fence for his home in Geelong, Victoria. “I wanted to create something that was functional, interesting and gave us a reason to chat with people as they were walking past,” he says. “Lots of people ask questions about it, and when there’s fruit on the plants we often tell people that they’re welcome to take things. A garden is a nice way of bridging generations and language barriers – it’s great.”
Once upon a time, the raised beds’ main purpose was to stop Tim’s young sons from running onto the busy street. Now his kids are older, the focus has changed but the sense of security remains. While Tim and his wife had been involved in community gardens as renters, the drive to grow and create only kicked in when he became a homeowner. “I joked when we bought the place, ‘maybe we could just rip the garden out and pour concrete’, because I had no interest,” he says. “But then I started taking a bit of pride in it and experimenting with it, and it snowballed.”
Tim got lucky with his garden beds twice over – first, having a former carpenter as a neighbour who could help him craft the plans to construct them, and again when council works in the gutters in front of the property served up a golden opportunity. “Both beds are huge – over five metres long, 1.2 metres wide and about 1.2 metres high – and I had to somehow find a way to fill them. It’s a lot of soil,” he says. “I asked one of the guys working in the street to leave any rubble they were chucking out on my nature strip. I came home from work one day and they’d done it for me – they’d tipped it in from their trucks so both beds were half full of exactly what I needed, bricks and bits of concrete, so I could go and buy topsoil for the other half. That was awesome,” he says.
Luck only gets you so far though, and there’s something else Tim wishes he’d had more of – preparation. “Old builders spend a long time getting everything ready before they start, but I was quite impulsive and jumped in too fast,” he says. “I should have considered the longer-term issues like lining the beds, structural support, and making them easier to weed around.” Every so often, Tim replaces any rusted tin and spends a weekend sanding back and re-oiling the timbers to help keep them at their best.
The success of the project is clear from the bounty of produce Tim and his family get to enjoy year after year. “Through the winter, we grow about 200 bulbs of garlic – it makes a great present and we’ve got those big plaits hanging up in our kitchen,” he says. To keep his garlic going, Tim puts the 10 best bulbs aside at the start of the season, then replants them at Easter time. Just before Christmas, they’re harvested to make way for other crops. “Summer’s more fun, you can grow all kinds of things,” Tim says. Picture watermelons spilling onto the footpath, or tall corn and sunflowers towering above. “They’re really striking because the beds are already high, then to have 1-2 metre sunflowers, you really notice it when you drive past.” And then there’s the cherry tomato plants. “You never manage to harvest all the tomatoes before they fall on the ground, but they’re self-seeding so they pop up again all over the place.” Tim’s tomatoes are loving the soil he keeps well fertilised with manure from his backyard chickens. He recommends staking the plants strongly and early and keeping them well-watered when the weather is hot.
Any time the family hangs out in their front garden, like when guests come and go, the kids grab their chance to run along and jump from bed to bed – and helping with the gardening is fun, too. “Pulling that garlic out, weeding the beds, picking the tomatoes, or whatever – the kids just get involved,” he says.
Whether or not he influences his kids to love gardening, Tim can feel good knowing his project has inspired other Workshop members. “I love the idea that others might be moved to take on a project they might otherwise not have dreamt up,” he says. “I never saw myself as a gardener or handy person – I’m a tech guy, so I spend my days tucked away in my little office in front of a screen. But I’ve had seasons where it’s been both therapeutic and rewarding – I’m glad to have encouraged others on that path.”
Love the look of Neil’s backyard oasis? Find out how to create a tropical lush garden. To get harvesting and sharing produce with your neighbours, learn how to grow garlic and which tomatoes to plant in raised garden beds. Plus, make your edible garden more sustainable with a worm farm.
To see more of Neil and Tim’s projects, visit the Bunnings Workshop community. You’ll find a variety of projects from creators like Neil and Tim for every room and space, indoors and out.
Asbestos, lead-based paints and copper chromium arsenic (CCA) treated timber are health hazards you need to look out for when renovating older homes. These substances can easily be disturbed when renovating and exposure to them can cause a range of life-threatening diseases and conditions including cancer. For information on the dangers of asbestos, lead-based paint and CCA treated timber and tips for dealing with these materials contact your local council's Environmental Health Officer or visit our Health & Safety page.
When following our advice in our D.I.Y. videos, make sure you use all equipment, including PPE, safely by following the manufacturer’s instructions. Check that the equipment is suitable for the task and that PPE fits properly. If you are unsure, hire an expert to do the job or talk to a Bunnings Team Member.
