I live on about one inch of top soil sitting on top of solid rock. We can't even get grass to grow here. I've always been a bit obsessed with gardening, so I had to find a work around. Enter raised bed gardening.
Simple concept: If your soil is awful, just plop something better down on top of it.
Biggest takeaways:
1. You definitely don't have enough hands to do this alone
I ended up using bricks, small animals and errant children to hold the boards in place while I screwed in the brackets.
2. It takes so much dirt to fill it; do the math before starting
I'm told it a quantifiable amount, but my experience says it's close to infinite.
3. Don't go for perfect, go for functional
I found myself trying to line everything. up exactly, but ultimately this is a giant box of dirt, so chill.
4. You will get enough of a workout buying dry bags of soil
I bought my dirt after a rain and nearly died trying to haul it across the yard.
5. Plan ahead, you're going to want to build more than one
Even though this project kicked my butt, I'm so happy with the final product, I'm ready to build another one.