Transforming a Deck to an Amazing Backyard Garden
A must see transformation! Turning an outdated old deck into amazing raised garden beds and a beautiful backyard garden space! #upcycledgarden #gardeninspiration #newgarden #vegetablegarden #raisedbed
I've been wanting to add garden space to our yard for the past couple of years. Even in a suburban neighborhood, finding a decent flat area in our yard was a challenge, so we put it off. Well, enter Spring 2020 and being quarantined at home. One project turned into another and in the matter of a couple of weeks we turned an overgrown deck space into an amazing backyard garden. Now it is home to my modern-day Victory Garden and producing a ton of vegetables for us this summer.
I'm so excited to share how we transformed this underused space into one of my favorite features of our house. Check out the before and after photos to see the amazing difference!
From Deck to Backyard Garden...
Before...
We bought our house 4 years ago and this deck and the plants all were there and established. The strange thing about this deck was that it did not connect to the concrete patio or have any doors from the house leading to it. The tall arborvitaes were planted for privacy I'm sure, and the shrubs were probably just added for low maintenance landscaping. We rarely used the deck, maybe sitting on it a couple of times each summer.
before photo of deck and shrubs
before photo of deck and shrubs
before photo of deck and shrubs
Goodbye Shrubs...
Our original intention was to simply tear out the shrubs around the deck and put in some new flower gardens. While I don't like to remove established plants, these shrubs had not been growing well and had a lot of brown and bare spots.
deck with shrubs torn out
deck with shrubs removed
Once we tore the shrubs out we were sitting and looking at the space and realized that we really did not like the deck at all. After thinking about it some my husband told me that we could take the deck down and I could have a garden space there. All he had to say was garden space and I was sold!
Removing the Deck and Arborvitaes...
My husband demolished the deck carefully, trying to conserve any wood or boards that he could. We got really lucky and discovered that most of of the deck joists were still in great shape underneath the decking. We also left the back corner of the deck intact so that we would have a platform for a small shed.
deck boards removed
To open up the yard a little more and create some more garden space we removed the first three arborvitaes as well. This also gave me a much better sight line across our yard to the kid's play set.
Building Raised Garden Beds...
After some cleaning and removing nails and screws we realized we were going to be able to salvage plenty of the wood from the deck and turn it into garden beds. Based on how much space we had for the garden my husband was able to build 4 raised garden beds from the wood. It was so exciting that we were able to up-cycle the deck and make it into these beautiful garden beds!
finished raised garden bed frame
4 raised garden beds in garden
finished raised beds in garden space
To learn how to make these awesome raised beds be sure to check out my full tutorial: How to Build a Raised Garden Bed. You'll be surprised how easy they are to build!
Shed Platform and Soil...
Once the raised beds were finished we had to do a few items to complete the garden space. First, some of the better deck boards were replaced into a platform for the shed. We felt like a platform was necessary to keep the shed level and off the ground. This is really important for keeping water from getting into the shed.
raised beds filled with soil and shed platform complete
Next, we filled the garden beds all with soil and compost. That way they would be completely ready for planting.
Final Set-Up...
To finish off our new garden space we first added our new shed. We went with this 6' x 8' Suncast- Everett Shed because it was the perfect size for what we needed (if you need a smaller one- check out the 6' x 3' Suncast- Everett Shed). It looks perfect behind our house and we've been really happy with our new storage space for gardening and landscaping tools.
finished garden space without plants
Next we added our two compost bins into the garden space. We are happy that we can keep them in a more discreet place that is out of view of our neighbors. We also moved all of our farmhouse style metal garden planters into the garden space. They are perfect additional garden beds.
Finally we added stepping stones from one side to the other. After everything was in place we put mulch down on any of the open soil space.
Backyard Garden is Planted!
Once the garden was complete it was time to start planting. We started with planting some sets of onions and peas in late April. After Mother's day (and threat of any frost in Southwest Ohio) we planted the rest of the garden with peppers, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, green beans, zucchini and a raspberry bush!
new garden space with everything freshly planted
After planting we also created our own watering system. We added a hose splitter to our main water source, ran hose from one connection to to our gardens where we connected sprinkler hose in each garden bed. We held all of the sprinkler hose in place with small landscape stakes. This makes it so easy to water our garden every day, plus it was a much cheaper than buying an expensive watering system.
Our New Backyard Garden!
I'm so in love with our new garden space. It is perfect for us and is producing so many fresh vegetables.
growing vegetable garden
looking straight on at finished garden space
upcycled raised bed garden
finished new backyard garden
raised beds growing vegetables
What a transformation!
I had to share just a couple of before-and-afters! Looks so much better!
before and after of deck transformation to garden space
before and after of upcycling deck to a raised bed garden
Want more Gardening Ideas and Inspiration?
For more information and tutorials all about gardening check out some of my other posts:
