Last winter I saw a Frame-it-All kit at Home Depot on sale (about $100 on the off season) and I just had to get it. It comes with plastic brackets and composite timbers that allow you to build a modular garden. I went for a 4' x 8' plot. The particular kit is meant to do a 2-level plot but I wanted to just go ahead and make everything 12" tall, so I had to get 2 extra pieces of 2"x6" redwood cut to 4 foot lengths to make up for it. The plastic brackets make this thing super easy to construct, you just need a drill to attach the pieces and it just stacks together!
After that I did lay a piece of landscaping fabric down although I don't know that it was necessary. I threw in a couple inches of bark nuggets to help with the drainage (since this will sit forever on concrete, I don't want it to be sopping wet 24/7, though I think having it be damp when I water it is OK), and then hauled bag after bag after bag into it. THAT took a couple of weekends because I would only want to buy/haul a few at a time! I mixed all kinds of brands of dirt, compost, and some pearlite, figuring the type of dirt will all average out in the end.
After that I put in some seeds and seedlings and now 3 months later I have a ton of lettuce, chard, radishes (wait. there IS a slight problem where I don't actually eat nearly enough leafy greens), my tomatoes are starting to fruit and I have some green bean plants and peppers getting more optimistic looking. I would like to put in a drip watering system for this bed, but the size of the plot, mulch, and the shade from the leaves means it doesn't dry out TOO fast. I still have to water it daily on very hot days, but last year I had plants wilt from heat if I didn't get to give them some water twice a day. This is doing all right and if it gets too hot I can set up a little open shade to cool it down.
Next step: make myself eat tons and tons of leafy greens!!
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